Choke

Choke is a film written and directed by Clark Gregg, adapted from one of Chuck Palahniuk's testosterone-fueled novels. It concerns Victor (Sam Rockwell), who has three bizarre problems: he is a sex addict, he has a mother in a mental hospital, and he raises extra money by choking on food in restaurants, hoping that the person who rescues him will give him money. If that weren't enough, he works in one of those colonial America theme parks where he is supposed to stay in character. Without much regard to his employment, he does not, instead mocking the guy who does take his job seriously.

The largest part of the film is the mother-son relationship, with Anjelica Huston giving her all as a woman who never had all of her marbles now in full-blown dementia. Though she seriously screwed Victor up by dragging him all over the country on weird missions, he dutifully visits her, and becomes attracted to her doctor (Kelly MacDonald). When MacDonald translates Huston's diary, which is in Italian, she tells Victor that he may have been cloned from the foreskin of Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be surprised if many viewers of this film checked out at this point.

Another subplot is the ageless cliche of a guy ending up dating a stripper. Of course strippers date, but they don't date customers, except in the feverish imagination of guys like Palahniuk. There's also the obligatory scene in which the stripper reveals that she has hidden depths, this time discussing the New Testament.

Somewhere in here there may have been a good movie, but it's hopelessly scattered over too many concepts. The most interesting is the sex addiction part--I've always wondered if people attend those meetings to hook up--but it's only one part of the film. The choking bit is woefully underdeveloped, and I just didn't get it--why would people give money to someone they perform the Heimlich maneuver on? Or if we had learned more about what a job at a history theme park was like. Instead we get shreds and patches that don't add up to much.