Aaron Ploof
The trailer for Choke, Clark Gregg’s 2008 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s 2001 novel, features reviews that praise the film’s inherent crassness and crude humor. “A Dirty Minded Satirical Psychotic Comedy,” one review states. Another review comments, “Vulgar, Obscene, and Best of All, Hilarious.”
While there’s no doubt that these reviews capture certain elements of the film, the main reasons most viewers would attend it, there is a certain element that they’re missing. Indeed, behind all the obscenity in Choke lies a warm-hearted, wise lesson on relationships and how loving others can transform even the most hardened heart. Additionally, the film speaks to people’s need to save others, whether or not they wish to be helped. Though ultimately, it asserts that we need to be the ones to save ourselves. The film uses its comedic coating to convey this message, successfully giving viewers a film to laugh at as well as to think on deeper, more important themes.
Our main protagonist in Choke is Victor Mancini, a broken shell of a man. He finds little value in anything, approaching life with little to no hope. As Cregg puts it, Victor is “choosing to live in the persona of a nihilistic sex-addicted bad boy.” He frequents sex-addiction help groups to find people to sleep with, taking advantage of their vulnerability to feed his hunger for sex. At the theme park where he works, he sleeps with elementary school teachers while their students are exploring exhibits. But that’s not Victor’s only vice. His compulsions run deeper than that.
No, Victor’s greatest sin is taking advantage of good-willed people whose only intent is to help save his life. By frequenting restaurants and pretending to choke on food, he lures unsuspecting strangers to be his savior. After the rescue, Victor establishes a parasitic relationship with his rescuers. He scams them out of money by lying about made-up sicknesses. He then uses the money to pay for his mother’s hospital bills. Victor, ultimately, is love-starved. Denny, his best friend, admonishes him at a restaurant, “You can’t fool people into loving you, man.” “Wanna bet?” Victor retorts, shoving a piece of meat in his mouth. As the stranger who saves him cradles him in his arms, Victor tells us this is his favorite part.
The gaping love hole in Victor’s being originates from his dysfunctional relationship with his mother, Ida. Yet it wouldn’t be exactly truthful to call Ida Victor’s mom (she kidnapped him from a baby stroller). She raises Victor, instilling in him her own zest for life. Like the animals she shows him at the zoo, Ida feels trapped by society’s bars. Ida, in her own twisted way, loves Victor. Or, at least, wants someone to love and be loved by, like the woman who traced her lover’s shadow.
It’s Paige’s arrival that upends Victor’s life. As revealed in the film’s climax, Paige is a patient at the hospital who is posing as a doctor. Victor finds her irresistible because she is the one woman in his life who calls out his lies. She’s also one of the only women to turn Victor’s advances down (he’s slept with all the female staff on the ward). And, yes, while it is true that Paige does concoct the whole “holy sacred foreskin” myth, she calls Victor’s feelings out when she sees them. In one particular instance, Victor claims he wants his mother to die. Paige responds, “I understand how you feel, Facing the possibility of a loved one’s demise can be very dramatic.”
When Victor tells her “No, I want her to die, just not until I find out who my family is,” she replies “You’re just sad, and lonely maybe, and you’re feeling for the first time that your mother probably won’t be getting better, and sleeping with me isn’t going to change any of that, is it?”
It’s true, despite his repulsion to his mother, that Victor also deeply yearns for recognition and approval from her. She was never able to love him in the way he needed. When Denny visits Ida posing as Victor, it’s clear from the way Victor looks at them bonding that he wishes to have that same connection. Asking if Denny has found out who he is yet, Denny tells him that all Ida wants to do is hang out. “Really?” Victor asks, in a clear display of yearning.
Paige eventually relents to Victor’s advances, using the chapel as her “hang-out sex spot” with Victor. Though she clearly is ready to sleep with him, Victor can’t get it up, especially with the visage of Jesus, the ultimate savior, looking down on him. Paige’s choosing of the chapel is no coincidence; it is the beginning of her attempts to awaken Victor to his potential for inner goodness.
For his part, Victor starts to realize that he actually cares for Paige and desires a relationship with her. When Paige tells him that she’s apparently the only person on staff he’s not capable of having sex with, he says he wants to like her instead. Of course, as Paige says, these things are entirely compatible. Having sex is a perfectly healthy part of a relationship, but in Victor’s mind, sex is tied to his darker side, so this part of him shuts down. Yet Victor does have a light side as well.
Victor’s heritage is a symbol for his latent goodness, a facet of himself he has no desire to acknowledge. He hates himself so much that he refuses to see even the tiniest shred of good-willed nature in his being. And yet he continually gives closure to people on the ward, an act that does not go unnoticed by Paige. Not wanting to accept the decency that the hospital’s patients see, he intentionally runs towards degradation, seeking out actions that Jesus would specifically not do. In this case, a faux sexual assault role play session is the deed.
While Victor’s on his spiral downwards, Denny is experiencing an authentic, healthy, adult relationship with Beth, a stripper he met at a local club. This coupling is the film’s example of what a relationship should be. It’s one that’s built on mutual respect and dedication. Denny sees Beth not as a sexual object, but as a person unto herself. He continually corrects Victor when he calls her Cherry Daiquiri, her stripper name. He’s also clearly annoyed when Victor asks if he has slept with her. Victor is jealous of what the two have built, shown by his biting remarks towards Denny. When Denny tells Victor that Beth is the best thing that’s ever happened to him and that maybe he should start his fourth step, Victor shoots back, “I hope you’re cool paying a kid’s tuition with a bunch of wrinkly ones.”
The rock structure that Denny and Beth are constructing is a symbol for Denny’s desire, as he says, to “want to do something good. Instead of trying not to do bad things all the time.” It showcases his willingness to work on himself, to improve his life. He collects a rock every day of his sobriety, and he uses those rocks to build his fortress. Furthermore, this is a collaborative effort, one he tackles with Beth (and later Victor). As Victor begins to recover from his spiral, he too implores community members to bring a rock by, so they can influence what it becomes. This symbol speaks to the collaborative effort of relationships and community in building oneself up again after dark times.
Learning from this, Victor begins to turn his life around, embracing his supposedly divine nature. In a moment of compassion, when Charlie finds Ursula and Victor in a compromising position, Victor pushes Charlie to forget the moment ever happened. He encourages Charlie, telling him that he has done something Victor has never done. Charlie has the guts to “hang it out there and tell her how he feels.” Victor even tells him that Ursula actually likes him. This moment leads to the two characters’ relationship during the falling action of the film.
Victor further recovers by finally starting on his fourth step. He starts taking recovery group seriously, rejecting Nico’s, a fellow sex addict’s, sexual advances towards him. She warns him, “If you go in there with those losers, I’m never getting with you again,” but he marches in regardless, and confesses his sickness.
This leads to one of the most important and wise moments in the film. Victor, Beth, and Denny have been watching TV, when Victor takes a break in the kitchen. As Beth downs some orange juice, Victor asks her if maybe Jesus started out as a dick. She answers by revealing she’s a Bible reader herself,
If you read the New Testament, especially some of the Paul stuff in Galatians, Jesus was all about the idea that people are transformed, not by being loved, but by the act of loving somebody, no matter how difficult it is.
Victor has always had particular trouble with this. Ida tells Victor himself, “Poor Victor isn’t very good at loving people.” Even when Paige acknowledges her feelings, he lacks to the courage to step up. This, once again, stems from his dysfunctional relationship with his mother. As Victor tells Ida, “I have sex with strangers because I’m incapable of doing it with someone I actually like. I can’t even ask someone out on a date, because if it doesn’t end up in a high-speed chase, I get bored.” He begs his mom to “break up with him,” to release him, but her dementia prevents her from doing so.
Yet it is clear Victor loves Ida, and for her part, Ida loves him back. Her love for Victor transforms her to the point where, during a rare moment of clarity, she feels compelled to reveal his actual history. In shock, Victor accidentally chokes Ida, leading to her death. Still, while she passes, she is able to reach a bonding moment with Victor. She redeems herself from the terrible way she treated him, even though he was always there for her.
Paige tells Victor she fell in love with him for that exact reason, as she discloses to him that Ida felt deep regret for the way she failed Victor, despite him never failing her. This leads to Paige’s confession of love, feelings she has had for Victor all this time. After he escapes the hospital, Victor and Paige embark on a relationship journey together.
In the final moments of the film, Victor reveals the film’s ultimate meaning:
So, here’s what I figured out. We’re not evil sinners or perfect knockoffs of God. We let the world tell us whether we’re saints or sex addicts. But we can decide for ourselves. As a certain wise fugitive once told me, sometimes it’s not important which way you jump, just that you jump.
He has improved his life by beginning a relationship with Paige and has saved himself from his former condition. He’s unsure if Paige is” a beautiful psycho” or “a twisted soul mate sent to bring him back to life.” Yet Victor has made a decision to love her. He has been transformed by his relationship with his lover, his mother, and his best friend, and he can now move onto the next stage of his life.
Choke, then, is ultimately about choosing love over fear. It’s about making that jump into the unknown, forging friendships and bonds, and choosing to be honest with ourselves. It is a crass film, sure, but it has more to say than most give it credit for.
