Choke

“Bizarre” and “brilliant” occasionally are found together, but not in first-time director Clark Gregg's dingy adaptation of the titular novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk (which plays much better on the printed page, where Palahniuk's colorful prose carries the plot over rough spots). Sam Rockwell is properly insouciant as Victor, a manipulative sex addict whose day job—playing an 18th-century servant in a Colonial America theme park—makes him the target of tourist abuse. When he's not working, Victor visits the local mental hospital, where he does the nasty with staffers and has off-the-wall conversations with his dementia-stricken mother (Anjelica Huston). The title comes from a regular scam that Victor pulls—deliberately choking at upscale restaurants in order to be saved by well-off Heimlich-maneuver-knowledgeable patrons, with whom he then bonds and hits up for money to cover his mother's pricey care. Even more strange, Victor thinks he might be a semi-divine clone, and he spends considerable time trying to uncover the identity of his long-vanished father. Although Kelly Macdonald shines as a sensitive young doctor whom Victor wants to seduce, the drably photographed Choke is a far too self-consciously weird film that—without a sympathetic protagonist—is hard to swallow. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary with director/writer/costar Clark Gregg and star Sam Rockwell, the 15-minute “making-of” featurette “Hello, My Name is Victor. I Am a Sex Addict,” 11 minutes of deleted scenes w/optional commentary, “A Conversation with Clark Gregg and Chuck Palahniuk” with the director and the author (11 min.), a 10-minute Fox Movie Channel-produced “Casting Session” segment, “A Mother's Love” featurette (6 min.), a segment “From the Los Angeles Film Festival” (4 min.), a two-minute gag reel, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing film.] (E. Hulse)