Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. Every reaction I’ve read to this one is totally different. A lot of times, films build a sort of critical mass, and you can get a good sense of what to expect by the time they’re finished with the festival circuit and they’re in theaters. But with this one... it’s still anyone’s guess, and here’s one more opinion to add to the stack:
Long time reader, first attempt at contributing. I just got back from an advance screening of “Choke” directed by Clark Gregg which screened at the Minneapolis International Film Fest.. As you all probably know ”Choke” is based on the Chuck Palahniuk book and it stars Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston, as well as Kelly Macdonald who you’ll recognise as Llewelyn Moss’ wife from “No Country for Old Men”. I’ve been a reader of Palahniuk for some time now and I always thought his writing would not lend itself to the silver screen. It’s not so much his style, it’s his substance that often stretches from the unusually insane to the insanely unusual. “Fight Club” worked on that it was its own beast, and Fincher reinvented Palahniuk’s universe and populated it with great actors and amazing set pieces. But for anyone whose read the book, there is no way they could have pulled off the last chapter which ends basically with Tyler Durden talking with god in heaven. It’s these kinds of Palahniuk notions that translate from the written word directly into your imagination and in my opinion don’t leave much room for re-interpretation on the big screen. Thus Fincher made the right move and left it out of “Fight Club”. “Choke” is my favorite Palahniuk book, and I was hesitant that I would see a watered down version of the story or a weak attempt at another “Fight Club”. Not just any story can feature Jesus’ foreskin as a central plot device and not come across as merely trying to be irreverent or shocking for its own sake. That said, I was kinda disappointed. On the screen I just kept thinking about that South Park episode where the kids discover that Family Guy plots are just constructed randomly from a collection of “wacky” ideas. The “wacky” ideas in the movie seemed really clever in the book. Colonial Re-creationist, Sex Addict, Scam Artist, pretending to choke so people will save him and feel invested in his life; Sam Rockwell is genuinely funny in some of these situations, but the initial gag runs out pretty fast. There are some well acted scenes with Rockwell and Huston, but Macdonald seems to only have one facial expression and one tone of voice. Although it let me down a little, it’s still better than 95% of the Hollywood garbage, and worth the short hour and a half. I always hated those dicks that say after a movie adaption of a book, “Well the books so much better.” But I might be that dick this time around. Well at least there’s tons of T&A, even old nuns showing some skin, and a kinda tricky twist towards the end, but it just left me with that “ho-hum” feeling. If you use this, call me The Mza
