When Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke hit bookshelves in June of 2002, it quickly became a National Bestseller. It was no surprise when an adaptation of the book was made into a movie, just like Fight Club. The movie’s director and screenwriter Clark Gregg stays as true to the book as I have seen in any movie in a long time. While Fight Club was close, the ending, although exciting and tastefully written, was a disappointing stray from the book, and do not even get me started on Breakfast at Tiffany’s (don’t get me wrong; it is a wonderfully romantic movie, but if you actually enjoyed the book, I’m sure you felt severely gypped like I did).
Choke is the story of Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). He is an ordinary guy, with more flaws than scratches on your oldest CD, but, like most, he is barely scraping by. Things have been extra tough since he dropped out of medical school. Victor works at a historical colony theme park with his best friend Denny (Brad William Henke, Must Love Dogs), where they spend their work days trying not to be banished by the colonial council for any illegal acts that would have been inaccurate to the reenactment of eighteenth century America. Victor’s other source of income comes from people he scams into loving him. If you were wondering where the title “choke” comes from, here it is: Victor has a habit of going to restaurants and pretends he is choking on his food so someone will save him. It sounds sick, but his rationale seems slightly logical and benefits both parties. He is able to create an instant and lifelong friendship, and, in turn, the rescuer feels proud and heroic. Oh yeah, not to mention that Victor tells pity stories for money and receives cards on the choking / life saving anniversary. All of the money that Victor acquires goes to pay his mother’s hospital bill. Ida Mancini (Anjelica Huston, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) has been a thorn in Victor’s side all of his life, but she is the only one that has loved him his entire life. Ida spent her life teaching Victor how to turn order into chaos and all sorts of other revolutionary ideas. Now she is in a deteriorated state and never quite sure who she is talking to. Victor tries to hold onto his mother long enough to get her secret out about where he comes from, but gets side tracked by her doctor, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men). As a sex addict stuck on recovery step four, Victor usually uses women for only one purpose, but cannot bring himself to have his usual relations with Paige. The intertwining issues of wanting to know who he really is, his growing feelings for Paige and being stuck in the same place as Denny progresses begins to tax Victor within an inch of his own sanity.
To find out all the juicy details and how it ends, you will have to see the movie, or maybe read the book — whichever you have the time for. If you already read the book, I think you will like the ghastly similarities, and unless you are anal like me you might not even notice every minute detail left out. So if we are looking up or getting Biblical, I will give this movie four and a half out of five stars.
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