‘Choke’ mirrors the intensity of ‘Fight Club’

Chuck Palahniuk has had yet another movie made from his collection of brilliantly twisted novels.

“Choke” hit theaters Sept. 26, and it is not a movie that should be ignored by any “Fight Club” fans or readers of Palahniuk’s work.

Although “Choke” is exceedingly different from the violent fistfights that took place in the basement of Lou’s Bar a few years ago, it still remains loyal to the classic character-driven storylines of Palahniuk’s writing.

The main character, Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), is an avid sex addict who deliberately chokes on his food while dining out.

He does this because the people who save him instantly feel a connection, as though he was their “child,” and they feel a sense of responsibility for his life.

Consequently, they end up sending him money.

This warped scam is how Victor earns the cash to pay for his mother’s stay at a private mental facility.

Apart from these cons, Victor also works as a re-enactor at a Colonial Williamsburg theme park with his best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke), who is also a sex addict. The setting at this park provides for hilarious dialogue between Victor, Denny and his boss, Lord High Charlie (Clark Gregg).

Gregg is also the director and screenwriter for the film.

Victor’s mother, Ida J. Mancini (Anjelica Huston), suffers from dementia, and when Victor visits frequently, she confuses him as her lawyer, Fred. Victor goes along with this misrepresentation in order to find out the real history behind his existence and who his father is.

After he convinces his mother that Denny is her son, and gets nowhere, he meets Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), a doctor, who helps him figure out his past and resolve the conflicts with his mother.

Victor’s journey to find himself is disrupted many times by his addiction. He attends weekly support groups, but usually ends up hooking up with Nico (Paz de la Huerta) in the bathroom.

These sexual encounters are extremely graphic, and might be offensive to the squeamish, but for the rest of us unperturbed folk, these scenes are somewhat funny and insightful to Victor’s character.

Throughout the film, the audience is given flashbacks of Victor as a child with his misanthrope of a mother. In these flashbacks, you see how Victor was never allowed to do normal kid activities such as play at the parks they visited because his mother felt he’s destined for greatness.

She wishes for him to become a doctor, and the irony stings as it is revealed early in the story that Victor had to drop out of medical school to pay for his mother’s stay at the hospital.

There is a cornucopia of graphic nudity from Victor’s incessant issue with visualizing female strangers naked.

Despite this and Macdonald’s flaccid acting performance, Rockwell succeeds in leading this film to be a strange, yet trying journey to find himself and his purpose.

Anjelica Huston is astounding as Victor’s mother, and the chemistry between her and Rockwell is truly remarkable and capable of being felt – it would be difficult not to have an emotional response as the film reaches its resolution.

E-mail Jackie Lerch at features@unfspinnaker.com.