Choke

In today’s society, we have a lot of addicts out there. Some trying to better themselves, some not caring if they better themselves and then we have the ones that don’t know if they have a problem. The most common addictions are alcohol and drug use. One of the least known addicts is the addiction to sex. Sex addicts are out there and they have a story. One of these stories is Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.

Choke was made into a movie by director and screenwriter Clark Gregg (Ironman) in his directorial debut. Chuck Palahniuk was also involved in the screenwriting. Sam Rockwell (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) takes on the lead role of Victor Mancini. Anjelica Huston (The Life Aquatic) plays Victor’s mother, Ida Mancini. Victor’s best friend Denny is played by Brad William Henke (Hollywoodland, North Country). Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting, No Country For Old Men) plays Dr. Paige Marshall, Ida’s doctor. Director Gregg also plays the role of Lord High Charlie.

Choke starts off with Victor Mancini (Rockwell) and Denny (Henke), who are admitted sex addicts, at the weekly sex addicts anonymous meeting. Victor who is really only there so he can hook up with sex addicts who relapse. He loves the action of orgasming because everything in his world goes quiet and everything then is beautiful. Instead of being in the meeting Victor is hooking up with Nico (Paz de la Huerta) in the bathroom. This is their weekly meeting. Victor and Denny also work in colonial America as historical interpreters or “tour guide”, which he hates to be called. Their jobs are not taken as seriously as it is by everyone else, especially Lord High Charlie (Gregg). Lord High Charlie is always trying to find someway to get them into trouble and eventually banish them a.k.a. fire them. Denny is usually ending up in the stocks because he is either not dressed in colonial times attire or bring in modern things to work and gets caught with them. Victor also has a side scam going. He goes to restaurants and chokes on food in order for people to save him. This way the people feel like they are heroes for saving him and also the have the need to look out for him and send him money to make sure he is still doing ok. The reason he does this is because his mother Ida (Huston) is in a mental hospital and he has to come up with the monthly healthcare funding. Ida doesn’t even know who Victor is and believes that he is always some dead lawyer. One day while visiting his mother, Victor meets Dr. Paige Marshall (MacDonald) and immediately wants to have sex with her. Dr. Marshall wants no part of it based on the fact that Victor has slept with most of the nursing staff. Victor has a knack for getting women to sleep with him and when he sees one he has slept with he has flashbacks of the encounter.

Choke as a movie was extremely well done and kept to the book very nicely. There were parts that were omitted, like more of what it is to be a sex addict, but I can see why it was left out. Gregg and Palahniuk hit the point of the book that make you go “Oh my god” and that’s what makes this movie great. This will hopefully end up as another culy classic like Fight Club. Sam Rockwell played Mancini perfectly and shows that he can be a good comic actor. If you liked him in the movie you should see him in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. There is some fucked up parts in this movie, but there is definitely some good laughs. I do recommend to read the book. Either before or after you see this movie because there is parts that were left out that are good reads.

Choke gets a 4 out of 5.

I recommend if you enjoy a good movie that has some laughs and is somewhat raunchy to it to see this in the theater, if not this is definitely a must own on dvd.