Sex-addict comedy errs on the side of wackiness
PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - Another quirky movie
out of Sundance, “Choke” relies on an appreciation for
characters who have no foundation in the real world.
The story of a sex addict (Sam Rockwell) and his deranged
mother (Anjelica Huston), based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk,
the film is one part social satire and one part off-kilter love
story. Some people will find the goings-on hilarious, while
others will sit through it not cracking a smile. “Choke”
presents a major marketing challenge for Fox Searchlight, which
picked it up at the festival.
Rockwell’s breezy and charming performance as Victor
Mancini, a man with a raging libido, sparring with his
eccentric mother, Ida, now deteriorating in a mental hospital,
almost carries the film, but not quite.
Much of the time, the action is so absurd that it ceases to
have any meaning. The characters don’t behave like anyone you
have ever met, or are likely to meet. Even a fanciful conceit
like this one has to be believable on an emotional level to
have any impact.
Well executed by actor-turned-writer-director Clark Gregg,
“Choke” is all id. In an initially amusing bit that eventually
becomes tiresome, Victor works at a colonial re-enactment theme
park where he is constantly on the make with visitors and the
aloof milkmaid Ursula (Bijou Phillips). As the self-proclaimed
“backbone of colonial America,” Victor gets to target some
well-aimed barbs at ersatz history.
Not surprisingly, he doesn’t take his job seriously. He is
more concerned with visits to his mother, who usually mistakes
him for her attorney, Fred. A lifelong eccentric who is
probably responsible for her son’s random sex life, Ida
alternately rescued and abandoned Victor to foster parents, as
we see in frequent flashbacks from his youth. On one excursion,
she and her son broke into the city zoo, where Victor was
mauled by a lynx. No wonder the lad is commitment shy.
In an opening narration at his Sex Addicts Anonymous group,
Victor informs the audience, “We’re all here to dig through our
own personal valise of perverse heartbreaking memories until we
can find one that helps us to break the cycle.” His mother’s
lovely young doctor (Kelly Macdonald) just might be the person
to help. But then again she might be as nutty as Victor, and
might not even be a doctor. One can only wonder when she
suggests that Victor is a descendent of Jesus and comes up with
a harebrained scheme to reverse Ida’s growing dementia.
Victor’s best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke), is his
partner in sexual compulsion until he falls for a stripper
named Cherry Daquiri (Gillian Jacobs) and opts for domestic
bliss. Victor might be too twisted for that, but in the end
even someone as crazy as he is might get lucky in the pursuit
of happiness.
