By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Clark Gregg
Starring: Anjelica Houston | Brad William Henke | Kelly Macdonald | Sam Rockwell
Country: united_states
Year: 2008
Running time: 89
IMDB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongdej_Jaturanrasamee
Michael says: “I’m not sure why, but I had high hopes for CHOKE, Clark Gregg’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel. Victor Mancini is a sex addict attending, but not really involved with, other than physically, a recovery program. His mother is in a health care facility and rarely recognizes him for who he is. Victor and his friend Denny, a fellow sex addict, can’t even seem to enjoy a pleasant dinner out before Victor has to scam a customer by pretending to be choking and having someone come to his rescue, thereby developing a bizarre co-dependent relationship with strangers who view themselves as partially responsible for this life they have saved. Victor’s relationships with women are purely physical, so when he meets the young, attractive Paige Marshall, a doctor at his mother’s facility, he is immediately drawn to her as a potential sexual conquest, only to be serially rebuffed, then suddenly sought after and unable to perform. When his mother dangles the fact that she wants to reveal to him the secret of his parentage, he becomes obsessed with finding out who his father is. As we watch Victor flounder around his pathetic day-to-day existence, we are also treated to flashbacks of his similarly sad childhood, being dragged from town to town by a paranoid mother living life on the run. But don’t worry, by the end of the film there’s a neat if not tidy resolution that sees Victor on his way out of his sexual addiction, and at peace with his upbringing and his mother’s revelation.
“It all sounds a little madcap and wacky, and it is, but unfortunately, as a central character, Sam Rockwell’s Victor Mancini is pretty uninteresting. He’s certainly not very likable, he’s rather distasteful, and he’s not even very funny. His buddy Denny, played
by indie character actor Brad William Henke, is slightly more interesting and amusing, but the story isn’t about him. Once again, I found a rather tepid film being far more interesting when the women come into focus. Anjelica Huston lends some tragic gravity to her maternal if loony take on Ida Mancini, and Scottish lass Kelly Macdonald sheds the accent to play the lovely and also fairly offbeat Dr. Marshall. There’s a little too much, ‘trying-to-be-cool-in-a-Fight-Club sort of way’ that may have worked better in Palahniuk’s novel. Unfortunately, actor turned director Gregg lacked the skill principally as a writer, to transfer that cool onto the big screen. 2 ½ cats.”