It's somewhat ironic that a film entitled Choke goes down so easily; too easily, actually, not unlike a flavorless gruel, which is probably the food most akin to this movie in terms of substance. Sure, every once in a while you'll come across a tasty chunk of humorous brown sugar or maybe an insightful blueberry in Choke, but these highlights aren't plentiful enough to keep the film from being forgotten soon after being consumed.Choke follows Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) as he struggles with sex addiction, his mother's downward spiral into dementia, a conflicted relationship with his mother's doctor, the mystery of his father's identity and angry co-workers.

If it sounds like there are too many plot lines in Choke (which is only 92 minutes long, by the way), that's because there are. Each of the topics is explored only briefly, and the two plots delved into most deeply-Mancini's search for his father and his romance with Dr. Paige Marshall-are probably the least interesting of the bunch and the ones that produce the film's worst moments.

Personally, if I had it my way, Mancini would spend the majority of the film at the Colonial theme park where he works, trading barbs with the disgruntled sentries and milk maids, all of whom were hilarious personalities and good actors that should have been given far more screen time.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, the film primarily concerns itself with half-hearted flashbacks meant to elaborate on Mancini's fatherless existence, which features a terrible child actor and a weak Anjelica Huston as Mancini's mother, Ida (although, Huston is much stronger in the scenes that take place in the present and manages to redeem herself as Ida submits to Alzheimer's).

And then there's Mancini's relationship with Dr. Marshall, which is the most significant example of Choke's ungainly nature. When Mancini finds himself genuinely attracted to Dr. Marshall, and she to him, it's not really clear as to why they're attracted to each other, seeing as how Choke only devotes about 15 minutes to scenes depicting the development of their romance. Of course, it doesn't help that Kelly Macdonald is absolutely horrible as Dr. Marshall and utilizes the same monotone to proposition Mancini in a church and express disappointment as she probably does to order a sandwich.

I was particularly surprised by Choke's lackluster nature considering that the movie is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, an author who is prone more to gruesome excess and eccentricity than the weak efforts that characterize this adaptation. It is obvious that Choke had the potential to be a good movie. The unique characters such as Denny and Cherry Daquiri (played excellently by Brad William Henke and Gillian Jacobs, respectively) that occasionally drop in could have, if featured more frequently, made for an amazing darkly comic film about the dysfunctions of human nature. However, the writers of Choke were more concerned with adhering to the source material than creating the best film possible.

Ultimately, if you're looking for a movie that embodies the sharp satire and extremes of Palahniuk's novels or at least features the same intensity as Fight Club (another film based on a book by Palahniuk), look elsewhere.