Review - Choke

by Mr. Blunderson

From where I sit, if there was an element missing from the novel that served as the basis for this film, an early effort by Mr. Chuck Palahniuk, it would be heart. Of course, in the book, it doesn't really have a place for it. Maybe the book has heart and I missed it. Perhaps it is there but it is just a really, really dark heart.

And then comes the question of the adaptation. Writer/Director Clark Gregg takes a departure from the book in many ways but manages to keep enough of the original voice that the end result feels like a great success. According to the extra features, this direction was not only supported by the original author, but highly encouraged. I can't help but think that Palahniuk lucked out when the material fell into the hands of someone who was able to avoid the trappings of so many adaptations (changing the characters names, core relationships, etc).

Choke as a film is an example of a guy who obviously GOT the novel. He understood it. He took the time (years and years) to get the script right, and managed to put enough but not too much of his own voice in.

And it works.

It's beautiful, it's dark and dirty as hell, and the end reult is a fine little movie.

I know there are people who love this book and will be turned off by the fact that the film is not as deeply satirical and dark as the source, but there is a fine line between a too-faithful adaptation and a completely off the rails clusterfuck that Gregg is able to walk long enough to make a believer out of this jaded SOB (that is indeed me I am referring to).

The cast is phenomenal. Sam Rockwell once again demonstrates his superlative and subtle talents that convince me that no one else in this world could have been Victor Mancini. Anjelica Huston brings Victors mother to life in a way that to me felt so much more multi-dimensional than the character in the book (whom I despised, not that it matters). But the best part of this cast for me was Denny, played by Brad William Henke, a character who manages to serve as a moral compass in a film that seems to have no morals at all.

My favorite character by far though was Lord High Charlie, played by Gregg himself. Mostly because the name Lord High Charlie still cracks me up, but also because I think I work with the true life retail equivalent of this guy. Seriously.

After all this you wonder what the hell this movie is about? Well...

Victor (Rockwell) is a med school drop out and, colonial reenactor AND sex addict who scams unsuspecting diners in restaurants in order to pay the bills for his mothers care in a nuthouse. And from there, the story gets a little weird. It's irreverent, it's disturbing, but when the credits rolled the only thing I wanted to do was watch it again. So I did.

Choke gets a resounding Oh hells yes on the Mr. Blunderson scale.