Sex addict Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) has learned a valuable lesson from his visits to a 12-step group: It’s a good way to meet women.
This principle signals the spirit of “Choke,” a new comedy based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the author of “Fight Club.” The black-humored film follows Victor on his single-minded, addictive quest.
Victor works as a “historical re-enactor” in a colonial-era theme park, adding a level of unreality to his already somewhat surreal life. In fact, one of the uncertain things about this movie is the world in which Victor lives, which isn’t always recognizable as the same one the rest of us live in most of the time.
Along with chasing temporary bedmates, Victor regularly visits his mother (Anjelica Huston) in the hospital, where she seems to be slipping in and out of sanity. A nurse (Kelly Macdonald, seen last year in “No Country for Old Men”) buzzes around him during his visits, hatching her own highly peculiar plan.
Throughout his adventures, Victor periodically fakes a choking attack at a restaurant, apparently craving the attention and warm hugs he’ll get from strangers during these episodes.
The film is directed and written by Clark Gregg, an experienced actor who gives maybe the film’s funniest performance, as an uptight “cast member” at the theme park. Credit Gregg for not going completely broad with the material — in fact, if anything, the movie produces an odd feeling of never quite getting the belly laughs it might deserve.
No fault to Sam Rockwell, who’s in his dazed, sneaky groove here, or Brad William Henke, amusing as Victor’s best friend. Maybe it’s that the movie’s weirdness just keeps puttering away, ungrounded, becoming less shocking as it goes along, even given a third-act revelation of biblical proportions.
Such a balancing act can work as a literary stunt, and is probably easier to pull off in a novel than a film. Despite these reservations, “Choke” still scores points for its sheer commitment to its idea, which mirrors Victor’s own commitment — and for coming in at under 90 minutes, before its premise has a chance to fall apart.
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