If a perverted “Garden State” had a child with a manly “White Oleander,” the end result would be “Choke,” a taut film based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name and directed by actor-turned-director Clark Gregg.

If the name Palahniuk rings promising boxing bells in your mind, silence them. Where “Fight Club” was the brutal but brilliant neighborhood bully, “Choke” is his sleezy younger brother trying to look up your skirt at Sunday school.

He’s nowhere near as cool, and only half as appealing.

Nevertheless, when one withholds comparison to the older Palahniuk adaptation and the original book, the film has its sordid merits, inducing genuine smirks at the characters’ self-degradations and pithy observations.

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a sex-addicted libertine who drops out of medical school in order to support his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, Ida, played by a venerable Angelica Huston.

In order to pay for her expensive nursing home bills, Victor works as a historical re-enactor in a 17th century-themed park.

“I am the backbone of Colonial America,” Rockwell deadpans to the camera, nailing the cynical tones of his character.

To make ends meet and perhaps to gain affection, Victor deliberately chokes in classy restaurants in hopes of being saved by wealthy diners. Playing off their savior complex, he then collects on their pity checks.

When a dying Ida begins to drop hints about Victor’s biological father, he calls on the aid of his best friend, Benny (Brad Henke) and his mother’s beautiful doctor, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), to get to the bottom of his possibly divine origins.

Macdonald’s soft-spoken, endearing Southern drawl still works its magic here, much as it did in “No Country for Old Men.”

Henke’s turn as the slacker best friend is golden, though he is more or less a poor man’s version of Seth Rogen.

In spite of these acting boons and consistent laughs, the movie failed in one major aspect – making me care.

Huston’s portrayal of an unhinged, manipulative mother in a series of spotty flashbacks into Victor’s childhood is a prime example of how a great actress cannot save an unripe script.

In any movie where the plot is driven by “mommy-caused issues,” these scenes are vital.

Unfortunately, the flashbacks shallowed out Ida, flattening her into a substance-abusing kook rather than expounding on her deep psychosis.

In comparison to the denser dialogue of the film’s present time, these moments seemed like after-thoughts, robbing the empathy from Huston’s performance.

Thus, the emotional scenes between Victor and Ida come off unconvincing and unwieldy.

Even the relationship between Victor and Paige becomes trite as the film closes with a stereotypical drawn out kiss á la “Garden State.”

But, seeing as this was Gregg’s debut as a director and screenwriter, worse things could have happened and for the most part, his transgressions can be forgiven.

Following in the shadows of Fincher’s “Fight Club,” however, it’s painfully obvious that “Choke” was being throttled by the hands of an amateur, despite stellar performances by the cast.