Cinema: Choke

Nearly ten years after Fight Club was released, we are finally treated to another movie based on Palahniuk's whipped up collection of tales, that alway give a dark and quirky view on modern life leaving no subject taboo. In the case of Choke, this covers sex addiction, mental health issues, religion, rip-off scams and anal beads.

Sam Rockwell plays Victor Mancini, an actor in an historical theme park who pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from falsified fits of 'choking to death' and then donate money to the man they 'saved'. He also happens to be a sex addict, who suffers from issues with women probably due to his relationship with his mother played by Anjelica Huston.

There are some very dirty and funny moments in this movie but the novel's intelligence and intense story is slightly lost in the big screen version. The film is played more as a comedy without the too much emphasis on the meaning behind the dark plot. Perhaps this was seen as the only way to make it work as a film and appeal to movie fans? With a bit more care this good movie could have been lifted well up into cult status.

However the acting is fantastic - Huston especially playing a complex role perfectly, from the flashbacks to Victor's unstable youth that include her stealing a school bus, right up to the scenes in the hospital where she refuses to recognise him as her son. Rockwell plays the lead very well but without sounding harsh a slightly better looking man would have been a touch more convincing.

This movie is very enjoyable and engaging, but there are points where it should have been much more exciting. But don't let that put you off, as there is nothing out there like this at the moment. It messes with preconceived ideas you have and pushes lines of what is socially acceptable. Considering that it was made for $3.4 million, and filmed over the course of 25 shooting days in New Jersey, this is a very impressive movie.

Hopefully it will spark off more adaptations of Palahniuk's work and we won't be waiting for almost a decade to enjoy it!

Choke is out on Friday 21st November - check out your local Odeon for screening times www.odeon.co.uk