Review of Choke (1971) by Theresa C — 06 Jan 2010

In a lot of ways, Choke suffers from the same problems that plagued the first Harry Potter films - while it's loyal to the text, and recreates the scenes well, it lacks any sort of life or substance to make it work.

Choke is frequently funny, and manages to depict far more faithfully than I would have expected Choke's bizarre tale of a sex addict who finds out some surprising things about his past. The problem is that the movie doesn't really work without having read the book to fill in the character details, or even worse, the plot details - there are large sections of the film that really make no sense unless you know what happened in the book, because the film does such a poor job conveying some basic information.

That's not to say that the film is a complete failure - as I mentioned before, it's frequently funny, and the whole piece is elevated by Sam Rockwell, who is perfectly cast as Victor and brings an actual emotional core to the film (one that it doesn't really earn).

But whether you think the film is exposing Palahniuk's weaknesses as a writer (partially true) or simply fails to maintain the depth and spirit of the book (partially true again, but more so), Choke doesn't really succeed.

It's saved somewhat by Rockwell's great acting job and a certain amount of humor, but ultimately it's just inert.