'Choke' chokes
By Nick Knittel, Staff Writer
October 1, 2008 | 3 p.m.
“Choke,” the latest adaptation of a novel by author Chuck Palahniuk, lacks the polish and the ideas that made the adaptation of his cult-classic “Fight Club” a success.
The plot centers around Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), a sex addict and part-time con-man. Victor’s gift involves pretending to choke on food at a restaurant and getting saved by nearby “good samaritans.” He then pumps them for cash to cover the medical bills of his Alzheimer’s-affected mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston). Victor works as a Colonial re-enactor with his best friend and compulsive masturbator Denny (Brad William Henke) at a themed amusement park. When he’s not hitting up his female co-workers for sex, Victor trolls sexual addiction recovery workshops for action. The thrust (no pun intended) of the story arrives when Ida’s condition worsens, and she begins to drop hints that Victor’s father was not who he thinks, leading Victor to search through his own memories, and himself, for the answers.
The main problem with “Choke” is the combustible nature of Palahniuk’s writing. The script does little to solve the issues. Palahniuk is a decent writer, but it often feels as though he’s being controversial for the sake of being controversial, always eager to leap that next set of moral bounds because he can, not because he should. The film often trips over itself to accommodate these digressions, such as the extremely surreal subplot involving a possible clone of Jesus Christ. Within the eccentricity of the film, this idea feels intriguing and full of life, and there are moments when the film embraces this left-field moment to great success by hitting the wonderfully placed “What Would Jesus Not Do” phrase square in the head. The sub-plot, however, is so suddenly and awkwardly shoehorned into the proceedings that it falters, bringing a key revelation and moment of obvious symbolism crashing to its knees.
Not only that, but the tiresome echoes of “Fight Club” in nearly everything Palahniuk has ever written feel overused. Not every story needs a conspiracy-and-aggression fueled character marginalized from society and fighting back like a bullied teenager who has just discovered “The Anarchist Cookbook.” In “Choke,” the Tyler Durden surrogate is Ida Mancini. She teaches her son medical history, odd facts, ways to read people and ways to protect himself, all while kidnapping him from his foster parents every few years in a series of flashbacks that never really feel complete.
Where “Choke” works is in the moments where sex addiction is mined for black comedy and even decent drama. A rape fantasy scene is one of the few moments of laugh-out-loud humor, but it’s when the comedy unveils the sad, pathetic truth of a horrible addiction that the film feels especially well-done. These are all broken people, but the arcs that lead them to self-realization feel natural and complete. Victor's own path ends with a moment of sincerity and truth that feels lacking in other parts of the picture, such as the too-sweet happy ending that Denny finds himself occupying.
Sam Rockwell is sub-par as Victor, a role that would otherwise seem boundless for an actor of his caliber. Rockwell, who has solid, solid roles in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Snow Angels" has a performance here that is simply shifty: sometimes extremely well grounded, and other times it seems like he’s just winging it. There doesn’t seem to be much of a middle ground, and for a film that rests squarely on the shoulders of it's narrator/protagonist, it consequently grinds the other machinations to a halt. Anjelica Huston on the other hand, is fantastic as Ida. Despite the character being a hollow vessel of Project Mayhem, she still finds the humanity within and works the moments of her characters breakdown to a strong and forceful end. Everything else pales in comparison.
Writer/director Clark Gregg uses forgettable camera work and aforementioned story issues to the best of his ability, which doesn't seem to be too much. Interviews have shown how eager and excited Gregg has been for the material, and while it's exciting to hear otherwise talented people gush about the things they love, there’s not much that makes “Choke” stand out aside from its loveably bizarre concept.
“Choke” is decent but definitely not the film it wants to be. The material seems right, but the execution is disappointingly far from perfect. Disappointing in the sense that it could have been, ought to have been, better than it is. For one reason or another, “Choke” choked.
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"Choke"
Speakeasy Rating: C+
Run Time: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.