His face is red and contorted. His eyes begin to bulge out of his head as sweat pours down his face. Victor Mancini, played by Sam Rockwell (“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”) is looking for love.

The only child of a mentally unbalanced single parent, Victor spent his youth in various foster homes while his mother, Ida Mancini, played by Anjelica Huston (“The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” “The Grifters”) is in and out of jail for a series of anti-establishment crimes.

This relationship with his mother has left Victor incapable of love. So, he intentionally chokes in upscale restaurants nightly. Every night he gains a new “savior.” These strangers give Victor the love that is so openly missing from his own life.

He returns the favor by hitting them up for handouts every chance he gets. It is the sort of scam only those incapable of feeling love could pull off.

Rockwell’s performance as Victor was vulgar, sarcastic and nearly perfect. He brought Chuck Palahniuk’s character to life in a very believable form.

The film is adapted from Palahniuk’s 2001 novel, “Choke,” one of his most popular. The first of his films to hit the big screen, 1999’s “Fight Club,” set the bar high. “Choke” had a lot to live up to.

It does not disappoint. Actor and first-time director Clark Gregg (“Iron Man,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine”) approached the project smartly. His screen adaptation hits nearly all of the book’s high points.

The camerawork is often so intimate, it is uncomfortable, and this works to the story’s advantage. The volume of unattractive nudity in the film makes “uncomfortable” a running theme.

The weirdly delicate portrayal of Ida’s doctor, Paige Marshall, played by Kelly MacDonald, (“No Country For Old Men”), was risky. MacDonald was an odd choice, but she pulled it off well.

Paige is the first woman Victor has ever felt a real attraction to, and he has no idea how to handle it. For the first time, he is unable to have sex with her when she proposes an experimental procedure that Paige hopes will save Ida’s life, but they need embryonic tissue with matching genetics. Victor just cannot seem to get it up.

This is an unusual problem for a sex addict. He returns to form as soon as he leaves the hospital, when Ida and Paige are no longer part of his life.

When he is not at the hospital, he is on a constant hunt for anonymous sex. An Internet hookup leads to a hilarious pretend rape scene. It is one of the film’s most memorable.

Victor wastes his days throwing hay around a colonial theme park with his best friend Denny, played by Brad William Henke (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”). They are constantly being hassled by their humorless boss, Lord High Charlie (played by Gregg) for breaking character.

Henke’s character was the most altered from the novel version. Henke still manages to win over fans of the book with his adorable performance of a rock collecting, chronic masturbator.

Overall, the film is an amusing success.