Choke

From the brilliant mind of Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote the blockbuster hit, "Fight Club," came the highly anticipated, though slightly disappointing, "Choke."

The film was constructed into a screenplay by Clark Gregg to bring the previously released novel to life. Produced by ATO Pictures in October of 2008, "Choke" is now available on DVD.

The story follows the somewhat lowly and pathetic life of Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), who despite his drive to be a pessimistic, uncaring person, is actually quite compassionate. A sex addict, Mancini spends his spare time either visiting his Alzheimer-afflicted mother, whom he blames for his twisted and emotionally unstable childhood, or having sexual relations with the entire female hospital staff as well as those at his weekly group meetings.

In order to pay for the bills, he has two occupations. The first is a historical reenactor of life in a Colonial America theme park. The second is faking choking on food in restaurants, forcing someone to rescue him. That person then sends money on birthdays and holidays, forever in debt for "saving his life."

The story is an extremely well-written and interesting one, with moments of comical brilliance as it describes Mancini's interactions with his best friend, Denny, doctor and love interest, Paige Marshall (Angelica Huston), on a quest to discover if his real identity is one of divine proportions.

I am a huge fan of all Palahniuk's novels, "Choke" especially, and although the film was entertaining, it was no comparison to the original text. The alternate ending different from that of the novel, in my opinion, threw off the whole story. I think the great cast saved what might have been a film failure. Each one identified with their character brilliantly and portrayed them to a T.

I would recommend the movie out of respect for Rockwell and Huston, but the true Palahniuk shines through in the actual novel.