I don’t read fiction, but if I did, I
glean that Chuck Palahniuck’s Choke would be a good place
to start. Watching Clark Gregg’s film adaptation, I realized
just what a joy the material might be to experience on paper and
to imagine in one’s head. Choke casts such a wacky,
surreal, and often hilarious web of characters and ideas that it
proves compulsively captivating. While I was able to notice this
ingeniousness through the movie version, however, I also found
Gregg’s vision of the novel to be slightly doomed on arrival.
The problem
with writer/director Gregg’s adaptation is that it has a hard
time balancing realism and surrealism. As a result, the picture
is by turns brilliant and uninvolving. The audience is
introduced to protagonist Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) in a
hallucinatory, hilarious opening bit that perfectly paints a
picture of Victor’s untreated sex addiction run rampant. (He’s
supposed to be another addict’s sponsor, but instead he uses
this as leverage to bang her.) But then the movie soon comes to
a grinding halt when it portrays Victor’s life in an ironically
realistic fashion, showing one of his off-kilter (but
nonetheless plausible) days working as a “historical
interpreter” (basically a tour-guide in a costume) at a Medieval
Times-type place without any of the interesting swordfights.
Some would argue that this tonal change occurs because the film
is told from Victor’s emotional POV and, as a result, uses
narrative devices to reflect Victor’s different moods in his
addiction. That may be the case, but it’s not an excuse for the
fact that certain semi-grounded scenes take the viewer out of
the movie.
The movie
examines Victor’s four vital relationships, but only does so
successfully with one of them. The first of these is that which
Victor shares with best friend Denny (Brad William Henke),
another sex-addict historical-interpreter who copes with Victor
by frequenting strip clubs. (In fact, Denny even becomes
involved with a stripper named Cherry Daquiri [“Sssh… it’s not
my real name!”] in the film.) This is glib and Denny feels far
too much like the token fat buddy than he should. The second of
Victor’s relationships is an ongoing one he develops with
strangers; from a young age, he began choking himself in
restaurants to earn the sympathy of those who saved him, which
usually would become so strong that they would listen to his
somber life-story and write him a check. These segments are
stylistically successful but a little incoherent. In the film,
Victor uses the checks to pay for his ailing mother Ida’s (Anjelica
Huston) private hospital bills. Ida doesn’t recognize her son
when he comes to visit her and much of their interaction is
found in flashbacks, which show a young Victor (Jonah Bobo)
being seized by foster-homes when his mom is deemed unfit to
parent and then his mom stealing him back. As interesting and
entertaining as Ida is as a character, the dynamic she shares
with Victor is oddly unmoving. Victor’s romance with Paige
Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), a nurse (or is she?) who takes
special care of Ida in the hospital, however, is completely
poignant and sexy. Minor as it is, this is the best story-thread
in the movie.
Choke
undoubtedly has its share of great moments, most of them
featuring either Victor’s neurotic, scattered view of the world
in super-stylized passages or Victor and Paige’s obscurely sweet
interaction. In the lead role, Sam Rockwell is absolutely
flooring and takes to Victor in and invigorating and
sardonically transcendent fashion. Huston meets him in terms of
over-the-top mania every step of the way. Macdonald is nearly as
good, too, demonstrating that her breakthrough performance in
last year’s No Country for Old Men wasn’t a fluke. And
still the film feels incomplete; I have a feeling that Gregg got
lost in Palahniuck’s words, which have a reputation of being
all-over-the-place and rapturous. Yes, the movie is funny, full
of good performances, and mostly entertaining, but it
nonetheless never quite feels like a cohesive work of cinema.
Choke may be worth a viewing, but it’s hardly the
masterpiece that many seem to think its source novel is.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 9.25.2008
Screened on: 9.19.2008 at the
William Fox Theatre on the Fox Lot in Century City, CA.