CHOKE

US, 2008, 89 minutes, Colour.
Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Brad William Henke, Kelly McDonald?, Jillian Jacobs, Bijou Philips, Viola Harris, Joel Gray, Matt Molloy.
Directed by Clark Gregg.

Choke may not be finding its way to the must see list for many people. It is about sexual addiction, an issue that we notice in the news or in articles about celebrities, but one which we don't feel the need to follow up in detail. Choke is often frank in its dialogue about the addiction, often quite explicit in its verbal references though no more explicit visually than many another film. When we know what the film is about and how the topic is treated, Choke self-censors itself.

The point can be made that sex addiction is a legitimate subject for a film. It is just that we are not quite used to it and, because it takes up sexual themes, language and behaviour, many will not feel comfortable about it. But, with alcohol addiction stories or drug addiction stories, real examples need to be shown, the consequences of the addiction need to be spelt out.

One of the draws of Choke for some audiences is that it is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club. Palahniuk is preoccupied with men's psychology and behaviour, the violent identity in Fight Club that leads to brutality and viciousness, the sexual identity in Choke that leads to promiscuous, lewd and abusive attitudes, imagination and behaviour. There are glimpses of some clients of a sex addicts' anonymous group and some details of their stories but the focus is on Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell very effective in both serious and sardonic mode) who is obsessed with anonymous sex and his best friend Denny(Brad William Henke) who has a more familiar self-abuse problem.

It should be noted that the tone of the film is often light and humorous – an interesting way of dealing with a subject that creates both prurient curiosity as well as disgusted aversion. Victor and Denny work at an 18th century American display town, not guides but 'historical interpreters'. They are supervised rigorously and upbraided in 18th century English by their supervisor, played by Clark Gregg who has written the screenplay. The action veers between the town and the addicts' meetings and the men's homes.

However, a great deal of the action takes place in a mental institution where Victor's mother has long been resident and suffers from dementia, imagining men from her past life as Victor visits her – and she criticises Victor to them. His preoccupation is that his mother confides in one of her imagined friends that there is a secret as to who Victor's father really was. There are many flashbacks to mother and Victor wandering the American roads by themselves, his mother being smotheringly protective. She is played to the hilt by Anjelica Huston.

Victor also meets a sympathetic doctor (Kelly MacDonald) who concocts an experiment to get his DNA by impersonal sexual encounter (which Victor finds impossible) but then is able to tell him that he is a clone from an experiment with a Jesus' relic. Victor begins to think of himself as Jesus-like with a good effect on the aged inmates of the institution. These sequences, in the chapel with a crucifix looking down on Victor and the doctor, capitalize on the Christian tradition of humour but many may find this offensive.

Not everyone's drama or comedy but Choke tries to find ways of bringing sex addiction to the attention of the cinema public.

1.The reputation of Chuck Palahniuk? Fight Club? Issues, male issues, macho style? Irony?

2.The title, the reference to the scam, its use throughout the film?

3.Modern America, apartments and bars, institutions, the historical village? American heritage?

4.The tone, comic and ironic, serious underlying the comic? The atmospheric score?

5.Victor, his age, character? His story? Introduction, voice-over, self-analysis, self-deprecation? His sex addiction? His descriptions, the visuals, the raunchy tone? The women? Denny and his friendship, the comparing of their addictions? The addiction course, the people at the meeting, the girl and Victor’s indulgence with her? Later – his impotence and her rejection? The various steps in progress through the course, Victor at stage four? His comments?

6.A film about sex addiction, people’s reticence, the facts and realities? The variety of forms? Ordinary people, their attitudes, fantasies, acting out, talking? Therapy?

7.The visuals of the sex addiction, realism, suggestive, suggestive of other realities? Verbal expressions, frankness?

8.Victor, his work, the background of his dropping out of medical studies? His work with Denny? Their eye on the girl who acted as the maid? The slacker attitude? Lord High Charlie and his rebukes, his use of the antique language? The stocks, public punishment – as part of the routine for the visitors? The staff, their characters, infighting? The girl, Victor’s sexual advances, in the hay, Lord High Charlie seeing her and being upset? Victor and his dislike of Charlie yet his helping him? Victor and his other encounters, computer dating – and the dinner with the woman who wanted him to invade her house and assault her? Her anger with him?

9.Denny, his sexual addiction, abuse? With Victor and watching the stripper? Talking with her, becoming friends, her character, the dates, Victor sneering? The break in their friendship? Denny inheriting the property, renovating it, Victor coming to help, the girl and her working with Denny? The change in her life?

10.Victor’s mother, in the institution, her age, the flashbacks, her depressions, her highs? Victor as a child, being fostered, back in the custody of his mother, their travelling the countryside, the outings, her refusal to let him go to the playground, the takeaway food meals, on the buses? The bond between mother and son? Her sayings? An eccentric character?

11.Victor’s visits, his mother refusing the food, her medication, the response of the doctors and Victor’s discussions with them, the different floors and his mother finally going upstairs? Her not recognising her son, imagining lawyers coming to visit, confiding secrets to them? Talking to Victor as if he were the others? Victor introducing Denny as Victor, trying to get the confidential information?

12.Paige Marshall, as a doctor, nice, her speaking of her debt to Victor’s mother? Her being very proper? Her wanting to help Victor’s mother regain her memory? The experiment, the scientific background, sex and DNA? Victor’s inability? His search about his origins? The discussion of the diary, in Italian? Paige’s story, the relic, the indication of the cloning, Victor seeing himself as a descendant of Jesus? The effect? His posing and language Jesus-like? His talk about this theme? With the inmates of the institution?

13.The women, their stories, sexual problems, the attraction to Victor? His Jesus-like manner, assuming characters and helping with their therapy and overcoming their problems?

14.The discovery of the truth about the doctor? Her being an inmate? Her story about medical studies, depression, dropping out, indebtedness to Victor’s mother?

15.The choking, the scam, watching it in various restaurants, the owners and their taking a cut, his setting up the scene, choking, the wealthy people coming to his benefit, helping him? The woman and her gratitude towards him and the effect that it had on her husband helping him? The finale – and his own choking and the police having to help him?

16.The going back to the course, breaking off? The next steps? Healing or not? His future?

17.An attempt on film to look at sexual addiction in contemporary American society? The serious themes? Using comedy to help audiences cope with the seriousness and embarrassment of the the themes?