I happen to have read Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke, which has now been adapted into a movie by Clark Gregg, starring Sam Rockwell as Victor Mancini – a sex addict who pays for his sick mother's expenses by playing on the sympathies of people who save him from faked choking fits in restaurants. While I realize Choke's a very popular Palahniuk novel, I didn't find it anywhere near as intoxicating as Fight Club or Survivor, but it's certainly full of interesting thoughts and gets progressively more intriguing and controversial as it goes along.
I actually think a movie could improve on the novel (as David Fincher proved with the already excellent Fight Club novel), and the casting of Sam Rockwell is inspired. Anjelica Huston plays his sick mother, Kelly Macdonald is a doctor, and Brad William Henke plays Victor's best-friend Denny – who works with him as an historical interpreter.
The trailer was mildly amusing, but I wasn't blown away. The good news is that many of the book's best moments and dialogue aren't spat out in the trailer (indeed, the whole choking thing just gets one brief shot), but there's also not much to inspire people to seek this out. If you've never read Choke, or just don't know or care for Chuck Palahniuk's work, I can't see who would get excited about seeing this. Sam Rockwell's a great actor, but he can't open a movie.
That's probably why the trailer is packed with quotes from early reviewers, proclaiming how brilliant it is, and that it won a prize at the "Sundance Film Festival". That's all very well, and I'll certainly watch Choke at some point -- because it's always interesting to see film adaptations of books you've read... but what about everyone else? Hopefully there's a funnier trailer on the way; one that bathes you in Palahniuk's quotable dialogue and throws in some compelling visuals. The only thing that stuck in my mind here was the glorious poster – a silhouette of Victor scoffing a woman in profile, her slim legs kicking wildly.
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