If a group of dim-witted film school students collaborated with some terminally imbecilic stoners on a movie project, it's unlikely the end result could be much worse than 'Choke'. The plot - such as it is - involves a charmless protagonist who fakes choking episodes in order to extract sympathy and financial support from strangers. This character is also a sex-addict, and in between rutting sessions with various women who inexplicably offer him their bodies, he concocts strategies to extract the identity of his father from his Alzheimer-afflicted mother.
The film is clearly intended to be a surreal dark comedy, but it's neither funny nor dark - it's simply dumb and vulgar. From the opening moments until the maudlin finale, the witless screenplay and direction reduces a talented cast to the level of amateur dramatics. Nobody comes out of this looking good, and it's especially painful to watch the luminous Kelly MacDonald struggling to make something out of such coarse material. Everybody else appears to be mailing it in - which, in retrospect, might have been the wisest course.
The film is clearly intended to be a surreal dark comedy, but it's neither funny nor dark - it's simply dumb and vulgar. From the opening moments until the maudlin finale, the witless screenplay and direction reduces a talented cast to the level of amateur dramatics. Nobody comes out of this looking good, and it's especially painful to watch the luminous Kelly MacDonald struggling to make something out of such coarse material. Everybody else appears to be mailing it in - which, in retrospect, might have been the wisest course.