Review: ‘Choke’

Scott:

Choke is more than just your run of the mill story about a lying sex addict who is desperately trying to save his mom by having sex with her nurse, and pay for her bills by pretending to choke on food. There is substance, romance, and more raunchy laughs than a Judd Apatow flick.

Chuck Palahniuk is an absolute genius, and dirty one, but still a genius. His novels are getting progressively more and more raunchy but I am definitely not one to complain about that, and ‘Choke’ is full of it. I wont spoil anything, but lets just say Victor (Rockwell) doesn’t just go to sex addicts meetings to pick up chicks, he really is a sex addict. I wasn’t sure if the plot was more entertaining, or getting to tag along with his sexcapades, either way this movie soars in both aspects.

The support cast around Sam Rockwell does a fantastic job, and there is no denying the chemistry between all of them. Ida (Anjelica Huston) is Victors estranged mom, who through flashbacks is showing popping in and out of his life when she wanted. Paige (Kelly Macdonald) is his mom’s Doctor who comes up with an ingenious way to get her better, such a way that Victor absolutely cannot refuse. The best friend, Denny, rocked the house being played by Brad William Henke. I hadn’t seen him in anything before but he did a great job in the movie and I am definitely looking forward to him in stuff in the future.

All in all ‘Choke’ delivers, and I absolutely cannot wait for more Palahniuk books to be made into movies this guy is 2/2 and I imagine in 10 years he will be 5/5.

[rating:4.5/5]

Travis:

‘Choke’ is a movie that’s not going to be for everyone. Based on the Chuck Palahniuk book of the same name, this is the first follow-up film adapted from Palahniuk’s work since ‘Fight Club’ and tells the story of Victor Mancini, played by Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), a con-man and sex-addict who must come to terms with his own identity, his true origins and that crazy thing called love.

But, don’t go see this movie thinking it’s a nice little romantic comedy. ‘Choke’ is raw and uninhibited. Victor is a man with few morals and no excuses. He is who he is and, for most of the movie, very proud of who he is despite being in a 12-step program for sex-addicts. Truth is, Victor has been stuck in a holding pattern on step three for longer than he can recall and he primary interest in even going to the support group is to get it on with fellow addict Nico, played by Paz de la Huerta (The Tripper).

As Victor continues to flagrantly fulfill his daily wanton urges and desires, he also continues to reluctantly visit his mother Ida, played by Anjelica Huston, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. You see, Victor is a smart boy who dropped out of medical school to end up working as a “historical interpreter”. He visits his mother everyday at the hospital, but always as someone else as Ida thinks he’s any number of dead lawyers she has known from her past, but never as her son. This tears Victor apart, especially after he meets a new doctor named Paige Marshall (Kelly MacDonald). Between Victor’s need to discover who his father was and his sudden inability to perform sexually, Victor’s world is thrown into an uncomfortable chaos that he isn’t accustomed to dealing with.

Aside from being a spiteful naive in a reenacted colonial theme park, Victor makes his living by going to fancy restaurants and shoving a large piece of food down his throat to force himself into choking, then stumbles about the restaurant until he finds a wealthy-looking patron to perform the Heimlich and save his life. Victor’s plot is that by doing this, he is rekindling the person’s “savior” mentality. In return, the individuals send him money to help and Victor plays it like he’s doing a good deed. In reality, he does this to pay for his mother’s stay at the expensive private hospital.

Rockwell is amazing, performing equally well in the comedic and dramatic elements of his character’s experience. Anjelica Huston is also very good, as is to be expected. The two characters offer a familiar scenario of a mother and her son  whom are both con artists, which Huston has studied before with ‘The Grifters’. First-time director Clark Gregg, who also plays the annoying Lord High Charlie, does a fantastic job at maintaining the appropriate mood and sense of dark comedy throughout the film.

Some of the most memorable scenes take place in the hospital that is full of middle-aged and older women, each with their own “imperfection”,  who Victor must endure with each visit. He’s also apparently had “encounters with each of the nurses. Brad William Henke’s (SherrryBaby) performance as Victor’s friend Denny offers a nice low-key comic relief  and somewhat innocent element to Victor’s life. Despite the risque nature of much of the humor and story, this is a very intelligent film worth seeing. I am tempted to place Sam Rockwell on my list of nominees for Best Actor, but I fear the Academy will not see the film the same way I have. There may still be too many stodgy old stiffs on the voting committee to see past the crudeness and appreciate the heart of this movie.

[rating:4.5/5]

Ram-Man:

If you see the trailers and read the synopsis for the new film “Choke” and chalk it up to just another screwball sex comedy…you are doing yourself a great injustice. Clark Gregg (New Adventures of Old Christine) make his directorial debut and stars in this latest adaptation of  Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name. You might recall the last adaptation… “Fight Club”, but regarding rule #1… we aren’t here to talk about fight club!

Choke stars Sam Rockwell (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe) as Victor Mancini, a med-school dropout that earns money as a historical actor in a sort of Colonial Williamsburg type theme park. His Mother (Angelica Houston) suffering from some state of Alzheimer’sdisease, has been committed to a very expensive mental hospital. In order to pay the mounting bills and provide his mother the care she needs, Victor turns con-man. Victor pretends to choke on some food and eye a potential victim…uh I mean savior to rescue him. Once they save him the end up forming a bond that Victor turns into cash flow. He hits them up for funds for phony medical problems and they send him cash. It’s a bizarre take on adopting one of the refugee kids from the TV, but as Victor puts it ” Only I live here and they get to enjoy the feeling of saving me all over again!” Did I mention..Victor is a sex addict. Move over David Duchovny.

Victor , who attends meetings for his …problem..only it’s not to do the steps it’s to pick up on girls and get off. That isn’t the only place Victor gets the ladies. On one of his visits to  the hospital  we get a glimpse into how well victor knows the people caring for his mom. It’s seems Victor has had sex with every member of the staff..and we are not totally sure maybe some of the patients! That was until he met the new doctor caring for his mom, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly MacDonald). Victor’s world gets turned upside down when Paige approaches Victor with the idea of having sex and   using the fetal stemcells  to cure his mother.  Shouldn’t be a problem for a sex addict right….Victor has developed feelings and can’t “perform” with Dr. Marshall. Victor soon finds out he may be cured of his affliction, when he is repeatedly limp with every hottie he encounters.

Choke is a funny, sexy, intelligent comedy. Yes,  it is chuck full of sex, drugs and nude women, but the dialog and story will have you  rolling.  Choke also features a great supporting role by Brad William Henke (Dexter) as Denny, Victor’s best and only friend and chronic masturbate.  We need to add  Choke to the growing list of great comedies to hit the theaters in 2008.

[rating:4/5]

Melissa:

“The safe word is poodle!”

Thank my lucky stars! I am so glad that Choke did not disappoint me! Great acting, crude sex, and a Colonial theme park… intrigued yet?

Victor is a sex addict. His best friend Denny is a sex addict with an emphasis on chronic masturbation (Sam Rockwell and Brad William Henke). Hmmm… could this be why the two women seated next to me left the theater within the first five minutes???

Victor works at a Colonial theme park since he dropped out of medical school to take care of his sick mother. To give her the best care, and pay for her medical bills, he goes to restaurants and makes himself choke in order to get money. While visiting his mother (Anjelica Houston) he meets Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald). Paige turns his world upside down when he finds himself unable to have just cheap, meaningless sex with her.

Anjelica Houston plays an amazing character! She’s fierce, spunky, and overall pretty crazy! The cast in this film play off of each other very well. They certainly weren’t afraid of the graphic sex scenes either! As for Sam Rockwell, he might not play the best looking character, but he has a certain kind of charm to him.The older women in the hospital are the icing on the cake. They all have their insane little personalities, but wow are they funny! This includes the elderly flasher and the 80 year old woman who thinks Victor touched her “woo woo”.

The flashbacks to Victors childhood certainly explain why he is such a messed up adult. You get to see how he and his mother interacted while she was still remotely sane. His childhood was far from normal.

The question that people keep asking me is how the movie compares to fight club since they are by the same author, Chuck Palahniuk. My answer, you can’t compare apples and oranges! The movies have different subject matter and are shot in completely different ways. Still Choke is entertaining. I honestly don’t think that they could have shot this film any better!

So if you are ready to watch a crazy but wildly entertaining film I highly recommend Choke!

[rating:4.75/5]

Jeremy:

Having read and loved the Chuck Palahniuk novel, ‘Choke’, I was a bit nervous as to how they could have adapted it into a feature film.   Ever since ‘Fight Club’ was adapted, Palahniuk’s novels have continuously gotten movie deals.   They have also progressively gotten more graphic and disturbing.   ‘Choke’ was four novels in, but, already, the novelist’s sensibilities had gotten to an extremely cynical and dark view of the world.   While reading ‘Choke’ I wasn’t sure how they were going to get by the MPAA without cutting a large portion of the novel.   They didn’t, and, somehow, the film got released with an R rating.

The film, ‘Choke’, does not disappoint.   If you were a fan of the novel, you will surely be a fan of the movie.   The trailers for the film are very misleading.   They build the film up to be some sex comedy a la ‘American Pie’ or ’40-Year-Old Virgin’, but ‘Choke’ is so much more than that.

Sam Rockwell plays Victor Mancini, a sex addict who goes to addiction meetings but really has no interest in getting cured.   He just goes to pick up chicks.   To support his mentally ill mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston), Victor works at a Colonial theme park.

At night, he and his friend, Danny (Brad William Henke), go to restaurants where Victor purposefully chokes on food.   Victor forms relationships with the people who “save his life”, and they send him money.   The act of saving his life gave these people a thrill, a sense of purpose in life, and sending Victor money helps them get a piece of that feeling back again.

The real meat of the story kicks in when Victor meets a new nurse at his mother’s hospital.   Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) is an enigma to Victor, a woman he views as more than just a potential sex partner.   Dr. Marshall wants to help Victor’s mother get better.   At the same time, Victor uses Dr. Marshall to help get information out of his mother as to who his real father was.

To say much more about the story would be to give away some serious surprises.   There are twists in ‘Choke’ that you never see coming, because, at first, they seem so unbelievable.   However, that is the greatness of Palahniuk’s novels.   They always have a way of turning back in on themselves.   The choices people make and the events that unfold are almost always the most unpopular.   However, when you sit down and think about them, they are the perfect choices for that person.   They are the perfect events for what has been building up.

This is why Palahniuk’s novels always work a second time through.   That is why ‘Choke’, like ‘Fight Club’, will work a second time through.   You see the train that’s coming full steam ahead, and you know there is no way to get out of its way, but, like it or not, its inevitable.

‘Choke’ is a sure to be very divisive among movie goers.   The subject matter is pretty hard to take at times.   There are several scenes of sex, some of them pretty graphic.   For the most parts, these scenes really don’t serve a purpose to the film, but they don’t take you out of the story altogether, either.

Rockwell and Huston both give incredible performances.   Based on the subject matter, I don’t see Rockwell getting an Oscar nomination.   On the other hand, Huston is absolutely deserving of one.   Like Ellen Burstyn in ‘Requiem for a Dream’, her performance is both commanding and vulnerable at the same time.   The latter scenes where Ida is getting really sick are quite moving thanks to Huston’s performance.

‘Choke’ is a funny film, but it also has some compelling drama.   You wouldn’t know it from the ads, but there are some really touching moments in this film.   There are many twists, some of them more ridiculous than others, but they all work to serve getting the characters from the beginning to the end.   Be warned that ‘Choke’ is pretty graphic in nature at times, but, if you can get past that, you will not be disappointed by this film.

[rating:4.25/5]

Zac:

The adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name is a well made and humorous adventure in the life of a sex addict, but as a reader and lover of the book, I feel like it didn’t quite touch the greatness of the source material.

With that said, Clark Gregg’s adaptation will most certainly shock and awe people with the insane twists and unpredictability to the proceedings and I think the film works probably much better if you do not know what is coming. The absurdity and lunacy of everything that happens in this story is what makes it great, and take away the shock and reveal of it all takes away from it a bit. But moving on…

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a sex addict, he attends sexaholic anonymous (where he usually has sex), and is a historical interpreter at a colonial Williamsburg type of community. Victor is a med school drop out that is now raising money to keep his mother (Anjelica Huston) in residence at a nice adult women’s care facility due to her dementia. Victor visits regularly, though his mom usually thinks that he is a dead lawyer from her past as he struggles to get her to eat in-between his banging of the hospital staff. When his Mothers new doctor, Paige (Kelly Macdonald) comes into his life he tries to sleep with her, obviously, but at first for the wrong reasons and then possibly for the betterment of his mother’s health.

The movie already sounds a bit out there and we haven’t gotten into the compulsive masturbating friend who collects rocks, the self-inflicted choking, the absurdity of enforcing colonial laws on employees of a modern tourist attraction, the sexual banter and innuendo among elderly women, or Christ implications. It gets out there. But that is all good and great, because that is what makes this film good and unique, the twisted world and mind of Palahniuk is a fun place to play in if you can swallow it, and if all of these shenanigans sound interesting then you should be taking the plunge into his world and that of Choke.

The acting in Choke is top notch by the leads with a decent supporting cast to boot. Sam Rockwell is great as the distraught Victor, not knowing to go with his impulses or maybe make a change for the better. He also has to take on these serious, almost heartbreaking moments from time to time and then be a buffoon for the absurdity of the piece and he is able to cover the range of emotions with ease. He also handles the physical aspect of having to simulate sex in a number of positions in a number of places; he must have spent a lot of time with his pants off for this picture. Anjelica Huston does a great job as the fading mother figure, as well as the radical mother in the flashbacks that may or may not have been the best thing for her growing son. Kelly Macdonald also does a nice job as Paige and offers a sweet image for Victor to possibly finally fall for, but she can also show a raunchy streak as well when sexual frustrations come in her path.

Clark Gregg steps in front of the camera as well to play one of the funnier supporting characters as well as the “leader” of the fake town Victor works at and just nails the idiocracy of a man that takes something far too seriously. He also does a fine job behind the lens, creating quick and interesting ways to show us the mind of Victor without jarring the narrative of the film. Though, I don’t know how affective the flashbacks were for me, even though Anjelica Huston was very good in them. I just didn’t think they contributed to the overall story and who Victor is as one would have hoped. The film also lacks many laugh out loud hilarious moments. There are a few, and they are very good, but most of the time, the comedy simply makes you smile; which is fine, but you just have to know what kind of comedy you are getting into here.

In the end, Choke, is an intriguing and darkly comic look into the life of a sex addict in the crazy world of a Chuck Palahniuk. His subversive humor is like few others and it can be an enjoyable world to play in. Rockwell is great in the conflicted lead and he carries the picture from start to finish. The film moves well and has its own style, which is remarkable at the shoe string budget, and will definitely be one of the more original stories in cinema this year. If interested, definitely check out in the theater, but if on the fence, don’t miss this one once it is at the video store as it is well worth your time.

[rating: 3.5/5]