Well that sure was different. Good different or bad different? I’m not sure…but…it’s different.
First off Choke is based on a book. But I didn’t read the book, so I don’t know how true to the book it is. If it is true to the book, I’m assuming the book can be found in the same section as a Playboy mag, complete with the plastic wrapping. Basically, this is not a movie for the young ones. And if you’re a “young one” reading this after you’ve seen that your parents have it, steal it when they’re gone and watch it. So what if if scars you for life…
At it’s core this movie is Sam Rockwell as Vince Mancinni looking for someone to love him. Whether that’s by shoving food into his mouth and choking on it, or by or by having random sexual encounters with a fairly large number of people. All of this goes on while his mother is dying in a mental hospital. And believe it or not, he falls for his mother’s doctor. And that’s when things get weird…like, whoa. I’m talking, half-clone of Jesus weird. Yes, that’s part of the story.
So on a weirdness level, the movie works. On a comedy level, it doesn’t work as well as it was intended to. There’s a couple of solid lines, but for the most part, it’s not funny. The funniest part for me was when Vince tells the stripper to get a mole looked at because melanoma is the leading cause of cancer in women, especially blondes. Then when they come back the next day she’s got brown hair because of what he said about cancer in blondes.
The acting is pretty good throughout the movie. Sam Rockwell shot this movie right before Frost/Nixon and possibly did a better job in this role than in Frost/Nixon. Kelly Macdonald from No Country for Old Men does a good job in her role. Her character has a lot of secrets that could come out, but she does a good job of keeping them hidden. And Brad Henke is really good in the gentle giant sex addict role.
The film-making and editing is done pretty well to. Even with all the sex scenes in the movie, they manage to keep that from being the focus. The sex scenes aren’t classy or pretty by any means, but they have the perfect sense of filth and randomness. They are used more to break up the rest of the scene.
Choke is presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and 5.1 Surround Sound.
Director Clark Gregg and Actor Sam Rockwell Commentary
11 minutes of deleted scenes.
A useless 2 minute gag reel.
An 11-minute conversation between Clark Gregg and Chuck Palahniuk; I think they talk about the process of turning the book into a movie, I’m not sure, I was mesmerized by the screen savers in the background.
A 15 minute making of featurette.
A 6 minute featutette about the Mother Son love in the movie.
4 Minutes of Chuck Palahniuk and Clark Gregg telling stories at the LA Film Festival.
A 10-minute bit about the casting process and how everyone was perfect for their role.
Trailers for Max Payne, Slumdog Millionaire, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, and Nobel Son
I can’t tell you not to see Choke. It’s pretty well done. I’m not going to say it’s a must watch or own, but there is definitely worse stuff out there. Netflix it first to see if you like it or not, then make the decision on ownership. I can definitely tell you this much though, if you’re not a fan of old lady boobs, this probably isn’t your movie.
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20th Century Fox Presents Choke. Directed by Clark Gregg. Starring Sam Rockwell, Kelly Macdonald, and Anjelica Huston. Written by Chuck Palahniuk. Running time: 89 minutes. Rated R. Released on DVD: Feburary 17, 2009. Available at Amazon.com.
