So what happens? Nothing
This was virtually plot less and nothing happens, so it is not really a
spoiler but since I do mention something at the end of my review, I have marked it as such. Jorge was an intriguing character, but the writer didn't know where to go with him. Jorge is this lonely, socially inept young man--socially inept is putting it mildly. I think he had some deep rooted psychological problems that went beyond merely being shy, as he was referred to in the film. We learn nothing about him to speak of. He works as a dishwasher in a diner and is an immigrant from Eucador, he is obviously lonely, has a roommate who is by turns somewhat sympathetic to him and ultimately cruel to him, is bullied by another worker in the diner and is interested in a pretty and kind Chinese girl named Amy, who works at the diner. That's it, that's all we ever know about him. There is no insight into this character or why he is the why he is, who his family is, what his life was like previously, why he came to this country, not even whether his life might improve in the future by the end of the film. We have endless scenes of him trundling along to and from work, dolefully working in the diner, being tormented by a young man named Jerry, who also works at the diner, and exchanging a very limited amount of words with anyone who speak to him. This is interspersed with, thankfully brief, scenes of an animated rabbit. What the rabbit has to do with anything is never explained and I was unable to decipher it. I kept waiting for something to happen. It never does. The film's title comes from the poster in the kitchen of a drawing illustrating the Heimlich maneuver for choking, which also probably ties in with the fact Jorge is "choking" psychologically and emotionally. Yes, eventually someone does choke and the Heimlich maneuver is used on them - but the character who chokes is very minor, and it changes nothing in the other characters lives. 3 stars and that is being generous.. 
Flawed movie, annoying main character, played out atop wonderful score
I was going thru the cable guide one Saturday night, and I added a
bunch of indie films from Sundance and IFC to my DVR record list. I recorded a few movies, and tonight I watched the first- Choking Man. It's the story of an Ecuadorian dishwasher working at a small diner in Queens who suffers from severe social anxiety and falls in love with a new Chinese waitress. The film is well made, the director knew what he was doing and the DP did a very nice job of making it all look fantastic. The action was broken up by scenes of animation dominated by bunny rabbits and other odd stuff. Those animated sequences were dream-like, and it all blended together nicely. The music was really fantastic- a lot of bells, toy piano sounding stuff, slow yet flowing music that added a nice depth to the action on screen. The music was a character in itself in some places, used aptly to convey a whole slew of emotions that a lot of the character themselves never portrayed all that strongly. The movie overall- not all that great. The main character, Jorge who supposedly suffers from morbid shyness…well, he came off as retarded. You would meet someone like this and wonder if there was something wrong with them mentally. Shyness is one thing, but refusing to even look at people or say anything to them when they ask you a question- I've never encountered anyone like that, and if I did I'd probably just assume they suffer from mental retardation and leave it at that. The problem with this movie is that Jorge isn't just unlikeable. He's worse. He's annoying. He's SO weird you don't really care what happens to him. I'm sure people like him exist in this world, but they're so far out on the periphery that in a film like this- he almost seems completely fake. The guy just comes off so badly to me that I didn't even want to see him. I would have rather watched scenes from any other character in this movie, as long as Jorge never showed his face. That is a major problem for me, and one that cannot be overcome. It's the film's downfall. That and it was weird. There are a number of very odd things that happen in the movie and don't make a lot of sense. Someone will try to say it's deep and thoughtful, and that I just didn't get it. If so- I say 'oh well.' I certainly won't cry over that.. |
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