"Choke" goes down easy, but doesn't linger

I should begin by admitting that Choke is my favorite novel by Chuck Palahniuk, who happens to be one of my favorite authors. So, there's that, which might be considered a rather fine screen through which I'm shaking down the new-to-DVD Choke, with rough-around-the-edges Sam Rockwell.

From the onset, the film is in your face, much like Palahniuk's other book-turned-film, Fight Club. You are hip deep in comic depravity before you've even gotten the premise. In this way, Choke excels, since few films can pull off making nihilism intriguing (though not many films are based on Chucky P's novels now are they?). All scenes based in Victor's job site - think Colonial Williamsburg - are fantastic, as they were in the book.

I had a few issues, though, that I think even someone watching the film without having read the book would likewise pick up on.

1. The acting is bad at times. Not horrible, but Denny and his odd-couple stripper girlfriend Cherry Daquiri are pretty bad, as is Doctor Marshall at some times, not at others.

2. The flashbacks could have been handled better, as they lack the punch that these scenes could have had. I found myself far more interested in the relationship with Houston and Rockwell as present day Victor and Ida than in any of the flashbacks, and they ultimately add very little and have some rough transitions.

Too, Palahniuk is known for his ability to have odd, fascinating origins to the strange characters and occurrences in his novels. In Lullaby, you find out that the cause of SIDS is the unintentional incantation of an ancient culling spell - I mean, that's cool stuff!

Alas, these facets in the film version of Choke are largely missing, such as how Victor's money-making scheme of choking in fancy restaurants is brought to an end, or where Doctor Marshall really came from. These are things that would not have been difficult to include in the film, but are left unanswered or replaced with more mundane explanations.

All in all, Choke is very much worth your time, and worth a rental, even a purchase. It's funny, Rockwell is great, and it's twice as original as anything else you'll see the mainstream film industry putting out.

The ways in which it falls a little short are just in the insipid hopes of a silly Palaniuk fan, and are therefore to be largely ignored.