Choke (2008)

I was drawn to Choke in the schedules by the presence of Sam Rockwell, an actor I could watch in anything. I find him curiously attractive and he's usually to be found in interesting roles (see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Welcome to Collinwood, Galaxy Quest, Lawn Dogs...), rarely in anything you could call 'typical'. Anyway, this film turned out to be based on Chuck 'Fight Club' Palahniuk's novel, although it shares nothing in tone or execution with the former movie. 

Choke is a pretty good comedy, with Rockwell on fine form as the lead, Victor, a sex addict who works as a historical re-enactor and is a small time con artist too, in order to pay for the fees at the private clinic in which his mother resides. Said mother is played by Anjelica Huston, who I've not seen in enough movies (she'll always be Morticia Addams to me, although I know she's an Oscar winning actress), who has dementia and often doesn't recognise her son. There are flashbacks to his youth and Huston has the years peeled away to effectively play twenty years younger, showing what a bad mother she was - she seemed to abandon Victor to foster mothers and then go on the run - she was some sort of activist (at one point letting imprisoned zoo animals free, causing Victor to be mauled by a lynx) - the backstory is never really fleshed out though, so leaving just the idea of neglect rather than anything too explicit.

Talking of explicit, there are way too many shots of boobs in this movie for me, as Victor pictures the women he's had sex with topless now and then, plus his best friend (a compulsive masturbator) has a relationship with a stripper. All of this possibly makes Choke sound like a Farrelly Brothers style gross out comedy, but it's not so gross and has a bit more to say. I'm not sure it says it loud enough though, and occasionally doesn't know whether to be comedy or drama, with several awkward moments - not least when (spoilers!) Victor seemingly chokes his mother (accidentally) at the end and discovers his love interest (American accented Kelly Macdonald) isn't really a doctor but rather a patient at the mental facility. The comedy sometimes obscures the emotional heart of the film that tries to beat through, that of Victor's abandonment issues and his relationship with his mother, who continues to forget him through dementia as she did through his childhood through neglect. Yet mother and son love each other. 

Choke was a good movie, and I really enjoyed the performances, particularly Rockwell and Huston, but there's something about the uneven tone that would stop me revisiting it and calling it excellent.