Choke (2008) Movie Review

After watching Choke, it occurred to me that the association with Fight Club may do more to harm the viewer’s experience than help. Although I can’t argue with the logic that it will help bring audiences into the theaters if they know that Choke is based on a novel written by the same author, Chuck Palahniuk, fans may come without the realization that Choke is a simpler and often more understated story. This is the very reason actor Clark Gregg was able to make this his directorial debut, using the same socially satirical sense-of-humor as the previous Palahniuk adaptation, but this time on a much smaller scale. Fight Club was an ambitious visual achievement for known perfectionist David Fincher once he had reached a higher level of success with Se7en, whereas Choke provided the opportunity for Gregg to start a career with a promising independent film.

Gregg adapted the story to screenplay and also acts in his film, but wisely gives himself a supporting role. In the leading role of Victor Mancini, a man with many identity issues after a rough childhood being kidnapped by his mother from foster homes, Sam Rockwell fits perfectly. In order to keep his negligent mother (Anjelica Huston) in a top-care facility during her last days battling Alzheimer’s, Victor working days as a historical re-enactor at a Colonial Williamsburg theme park, but when that isn’t enough he finds a brilliant scam where he pretends to choke while eating in public. Not only do the people that rescue him send him money in birthday cards, he also finds himself addicted to the feeling of being saved.

Being comforted and supported by strangers isn’t Victor’s only addiction, attending sex addicts meetings each week if only to sleep with the nymphomaniac he is a sponsor to. Random strangers are Victor’s preference, although he finds himself unable to sleep with a woman he actually begins to care about. When one of his mother’s doctors, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) tries to exploit Victor’s reputation by insisting he impregnate her before she will translate his mother’s diary from Italian to English, Victor is unable to perform for the first time. Victor believes that the diary will give him the answers to his childhood, but he is unprepared for the shocking truth that is translated to him from the secret diary.

Palahniuk's novels are nearly all filled with internal dialogue and commentary, which was transferred to film with a unique style and voice that separates it from the film version of Fight Club. Palahniuk has such a rich prose, as well as a gift for matching social and human issues with particularly warped or disillusioned protagonists, and while reading his books I am always struck by how visually lush the stories become in my imagination. As easily as the world is created by Palahniuk's words I usually tend to find the idea of a film version nearly insurmountable, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find that Clark Gregg's Choke brings the story to life in an understated way that allows the story to retain and even enhance some of the more poignant elements.

The cast is pitch perfect and immediately following the film I had the urge to return to the novel to read it again with the actor's faces in mind, which in my mind is the perfect marriage of mediums. Countless times I have debated whether to read a novel when I know that it is being made into a film certain that seeing the film will be disappointing if I have already read the source material. Although there is something to be said for Palahniuk’s distinct literary voice, even he has declared satisfaction with this latest adaptation.