Consider this: a sex addict works at a colonial theme park, but on the side chokes himself at restaurants to prey on the financial charity of his saviors so that he can pay the hospital bills of his mother, who has dementia, and who ironically is also the root of his terrible lifestyle. This synopsis is both the best and dooming part of "Choke," a film based on another book by "Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk. It's creative, twisted and entirely unique, only it's also a bit too much for one film, barely able to make sense of itself let alone for the audience.
Small-time actor Clark Gregg has his directorial debut in the film and his sophomore writing credit for adapting the novel for the screen. He's on the right path, but his film doesn't plant its feet anywhere. The main character, Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), is a crazed sex addict, an insecure jerk, a scam artist and a man with a deep love for his mother (Anjelica Huston), but rarely do we compute that he is all these things at once. His life is a whirlwind of the bizarre that is rarely unified except in the sense that we pity the guy in every aspect.
It would be one thing for Victor to be a sex addict alone, a man to whom sex is a compulsion, where addict meetings are sometimes places to go to pick up girls. No films have taken us into the head of someone like that. It would also be something for him to be a scam artist just trying to pay the bills for his mother with Alzheimer's. But he's all of these things and so we never get to truly enter his mind. We get glimpses into all aspects, but we never see fully-developed moments. Just when we think we're learning more about his tormented past always on the run with his mother or the root of his sex addiction, we're ripped away and thrust into another scene.
Still, the film makes us crave that deeper knowledge, and that is commendable in its own right. Rockwell, who has always been underrated despite strong performances in the past in films like "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Matchstick Men," gives Victor the complexity he needs in that you can tell he's lost somewhere inside, even if you don't fully understand it. Huston is also compelling as a troubled woman with dementia whose past was really no better than her present.
"Choke" is also funny. Although non-traditional as far as comedies go, it provides a twisted sense of humor unlike anything you've probably seen. Gregg does good work here too. Despite the scenes being cut short, his quick flashes of women's breasts (pun there whether intended or not) as Victor passes and mentally undresses them set the deranged tone for the film as do the many clever ending shots of the scenes. They're creative and interesting, but they don't resonate and even confuse.
Small-time actor Clark Gregg has his directorial debut in the film and his sophomore writing credit for adapting the novel for the screen. He's on the right path, but his film doesn't plant its feet anywhere. The main character, Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), is a crazed sex addict, an insecure jerk, a scam artist and a man with a deep love for his mother (Anjelica Huston), but rarely do we compute that he is all these things at once. His life is a whirlwind of the bizarre that is rarely unified except in the sense that we pity the guy in every aspect.
It would be one thing for Victor to be a sex addict alone, a man to whom sex is a compulsion, where addict meetings are sometimes places to go to pick up girls. No films have taken us into the head of someone like that. It would also be something for him to be a scam artist just trying to pay the bills for his mother with Alzheimer's. But he's all of these things and so we never get to truly enter his mind. We get glimpses into all aspects, but we never see fully-developed moments. Just when we think we're learning more about his tormented past always on the run with his mother or the root of his sex addiction, we're ripped away and thrust into another scene.
Still, the film makes us crave that deeper knowledge, and that is commendable in its own right. Rockwell, who has always been underrated despite strong performances in the past in films like "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Matchstick Men," gives Victor the complexity he needs in that you can tell he's lost somewhere inside, even if you don't fully understand it. Huston is also compelling as a troubled woman with dementia whose past was really no better than her present.
"Choke" is also funny. Although non-traditional as far as comedies go, it provides a twisted sense of humor unlike anything you've probably seen. Gregg does good work here too. Despite the scenes being cut short, his quick flashes of women's breasts (pun there whether intended or not) as Victor passes and mentally undresses them set the deranged tone for the film as do the many clever ending shots of the scenes. They're creative and interesting, but they don't resonate and even confuse.