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DVD Review


DVD cover

Choke

 

Starring: Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
RRP: £19.99
3862801000
Certificate: 18
Available 23 March 2009


Victor Mancini is a self-confessed sex addict. He attends 'anonymous' group meetings, but only to find other sex partners. He works by day at a Colonial-Williamsburg-themed park - unable to take his role seriously - so that he can support his sick mother who is in a home. In addition, he uses a scam he adopted as a kid, whereby he fakes choking in expensive restaurants so that he can appeal for money to whomever 'saves' him...

You can never be sure how our mysterious editor's mind works, so I can't be certain, but I think I might have been sent this one by mistake. It's not the kind of thing I normally review. Personally, I think he sneaked it in among the horror films - but don't tell him I told you.

Choke is a film which tries to be clever whilst seeming to be something quite light-hearted and mundane. The title, whilst linking to a recurring event in the film, is obviously also a sexual innuendo. On the surface this sometimes resembles an old soft core porn movie - perhaps Confessions of an Insecure Sex Addict, or more accurately Carry On Being Pretentious. I say that because there's the underlying story of con artist Victor's mother suffering from Alzheimer's in a home, thereby keeping the secrets of his childhood from being revealed. Anjelica Huston gives this part some much needed conviction.

This film has been described as a psychotic comedy, and it does have its moments. When his mother's diary is discovered, written mysteriously in Italian, Victor seeks the aid of a female doctor with the know-how to translate. She tells him he is an immaculate conception. He doesn't believe it, of course, but particularly at the home everyone dotes after him, no matter how he treats them. In fact, there is a fascinating twist in the relationship between the two which effectively brings the plot full circle.

Choke is a film which you might watch on Channel 5 late on a Friday night after returning from the pub, but it's not going to have much mainstream appeal.

4

Ty Power

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