Choke (2008)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Clark Gregg

Writers (WGA):

Clark Gregg (screenplay)
Chuck Palahniuk (novel)

Release Date:

30 October 2008 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

From the author of Fight Club

Plot:

A sex-addicted con-man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.

Plot Keywords:

Restaurant | Scam | Theme Park | Choking | Choke

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Kathryn Alexander	...	Mousy Girl / Agnes
Teodorina Bello	...	Jamaican Lady
Kate Blumberg	...	Edwin's Wife
Jonah Bobo	...	Young Victor
Willi Burke	...	Deranged Socialite (as Wilma 'Willi' Burke)
Heather Burns	...	Internet Date / Gwen
David Wolos-Fonteno	...	Edwin (as David Fonteno)
Matt Gerald	...	Detective Ryan
Clark Gregg	...	Lord High Charlie
Joel Grey	...	Phil
Viola Harris	...	Eva Muller
Brad William Henke	...	Denny
Paz de la Huerta	...	Nico (as Paz De La Huerta)
Michelle Hurst	...	Shapely Nurse
Anjelica Huston	...	Ida J. Mancini

Also Known As:

Asfixia (Argentina) (DVD title) (Spain: Castilian title) [es]
Choke (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Choke - Asfixia (Portugal) [pt]
Choke - No Sufoco (Brazil) (DVD title) [pt]
Fulladás (Hungary) (DVD title) [hu]
Lämbumine (Estonia) [et]
Soffocare (Italy) [it]
Tikanma (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Zalknutí (Czech Republic) [cs]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44083) | UK:18 | Ireland:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Singapore:R21 | Canada:18A (British Columbia) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Brazil:18 | Australia:R | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:18 | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | France:U (with warning)

Filming Locations:

Essex County Hospital Center - 204 Grove Avenue, Cedar Grove, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

Shot in three weeks.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Victor is attempting to feed his mother cannelloni in their first meeting scene, the camera changes angle and she is not wearing the napkins he previously placed under her chin. When the camera moves back to another angle the napkins have miraculously returned.

Quotes:

Victor Mancini: Sometimes you have to loose everything before the penny finally drops... or... whatever.So here's what I figured out.We're not evil sinners or perfect knock offs of god.We let the world tell us weather we're saints or sex addicts.Sane or insane.Heroes or victims.Weather we're good mothers,or loving sons.But we can decide for ourselves.As a certain wise fugitive once told me,sometimes its not important which way you jump,just that you jump.

Movie Connections:

References "Gilligan's Island" (1964)

Soundtrack:

Mellow Samba

Not sure how to feel about it

This movie left me in a strangely ambivalent state after I watched it, because I'm not sure if I'm judging it on its actual merits, or my expectations. Having been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk's novel, I was expecting something brash, frenetic and perfectly offensive, but in a good way. The problem is that while the novel was blunt and vulgar, spelling out every bit of Victor Mancini's sexual exploits in almost academic detail, the movie stops a bit short of pushing the edge and instead leaves a lot of it up to suggestion.

Another reason that I'm not sure how I felt about it is because the director took a unique approach to the work that I'm still trying to decide if I liked or not. You see, Chuck Palahniuk's novels have a very distinctive narrative style to them, and in Fight Club (also based on one of Chuck's books,) director David Fincher emulated it perfectly. I'm talking mostly about Chuck's usage of repetition with lines such as "I am Jack's colon," Choke's director, Clark Gregg chose not to emulate this and instead brought the text of the book to life without mimicking it's distinctive narrative. So if you're a fan of Chuck's work, this may bother you. On the other hand, it does help Choke stand out on its own merits and not feel like it's trying to build off of the success of Fight Club.

So for those of you who haven't read the book, how does it stand? Well as I said before, considering how much more graphic and indecent this movie's source material was, I think the movie missed out on a lot of its potential. I almost feel like Clark Gregg went too easy on all of the characters making them come off as sympathetic when they worked better as being completely hopeless. It's also not as funny as it could have been, since a lot of Victor's (the protagonist's) interactions with everybody from the sex addicts, to the people in the historic reenactment village to the people he pretends to choke for, were all summarized too much, and had much more potential for comedy. Overall i'd say this movie is alright, but could have been done better.