Choke: the movie thread.

[unwashed brain]

I saw Choke tonight with the missus. I read the book probably 5 years ago and only have vague memories of it being good not great. I've read all of Palahniuk's books except for his latest (Snuff), which I think I'll skip due to the subject matter.

Anyways, back to the movie. It was barely good but not solidly good. During the first third I felt like I was watching the latest Seth Rogen film - either not much of Palahniuk's snappy dialogue made it into the film or translated well as delivered by the cast. My faded memory left enough room for surprises, though. The movie felt less gross, less funny, and weirdly more poignant in places than what I recall of the book.

I left the theater thinking the film would have been better in a different director's hands. Fincher comes obviously to mind, if he could somehow refrain from an internal CGI zoom-in and pan out of a dislodged wad of steak leaving Victor Mancini's mouth. This film could have used his sensibilities, if not his visual style.

6 out of 10. Recommended for Palahniuk fans and for those who like to see something a little different every now and then.

[Bob Ducca]

I just saw this today and I agree with a lot of what you said. It felt like the director wasn't sure which direction he wanted to take the movie... funny buddy slacker comedy, love story, drama, etc....

The first third had me rather unimpressed and disappointed, but then in the last couple of acts I thought it started gelling really well - once they started developing the characters more and making them more relatable.

I love Kelly Macdonald but I didn't think she did a very good job in this movie of trying to hide her accent. It was too obvious that she was really carefully enunciating every word to sound American. They should have just let her be British if they wanted her in it so badly.

I have to say - I was surprised at the twist of her character being a patient. Didn't see that coming at all. The part of him being kidnapped was a surprise as well though less so.

Anyone know if the "circuit" he speaks of is a real thing or made up for the book? If I open a public restroom door and someone is naked inside, should I go ahead and join them? :-)

[devilsknew]

Yes, Yes, you should.

[jackdavinci]

Reanimating this thread since I just saw it on DVD. My first impression was that I really loved it, although it got a little slow in the third quarter, and that I could clearly see the Chuck influences (hadn't read the book). Then I read some of the imdb commentary and got an impression of the differences between it and the book and I suspect that the book was much better and that another director might have made an even better and also more true-to-the-book movie. The ending was very different and they left out a lot of the rock collecting stuff and Chuckisms. I'd love to see it remade at some point, but not knowing about the potential of the source material I really loved it initially.