DVD Review: Rules of Attraction, The (B+)

Rules of Attraction, The (2002)
Directed by Roger Avary
Starring James Vander Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Fred Savage, Eric Stoltz and Faye Dunaway
MPAA: NC-17
Grade: B+

Review by Scott Standish

I recently spent a week lounging in the Florida Keys. Other than a little time jet skiing, I spent most of the week just lying on the beach sipping Vodka tonics and reading Bret Easton Ellis' college opus The Rules of Attraction. It was a great read for that kind of lazy, cocktail sipping week. Could the movie be as good as the book? I was intrigued.

The Rules of Attraction is your basic trashy character study of rich kids at an east coast liberal arts college. The main characters of the book spend their time having sex, binge drinking, doing drugs, and most of all, simply trying to figure out where they fit in with the world around them.

The novel is told through multiple viewpoints, and the stories often overlap chronologically. The multiple character viewpoints offer slightly different perceptions of the exact same event. My thought was that although this structure made for a very interesting book, it would be impossible to turn it into an effective movie. I now stand corrected. Rising young director Roger Avary (Killing Zoe) has done a fantastic job of bringing the shallow, angst ridden, drug fueled world of Bret Easton Ellis' book to life.

The Rules of Attraction focuses on a love triangle between Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde and Paul Benton. Sean is an evil, self absorbed drug dealer that for no real reason in particular, has fallen for Lauren. Paul is infatuated with Sean and despite his suave efforts, he just can't seem to get Sean to respond. Lauren has a mild interest in both but decides to remain a virgin as she waits for her true love Victor to return from Europe. Throughout all of this, there is a ton of booze, drugs, "dress to get screwed" parties, "end of the world" parties- you get the picture.

The acting is surprisingly good. Shannyn Sossamon is fantastic as Lauren. Shannyn conveys both the naiveté and the intelligent hipper than thou attitude that the role of Lauren required. Fred Savage, Faye Dunaway and Eric Stoltz also show up in minor roles.

Roger Avary uses some pretty nifty tricks to allow for the multiple viewpoints of the characters, using split screens, reverse motion and other cinematic devices. It works quite well and its obvious that Avary wanted to be as true to the novel's structure as cinematically possible. The duo of Roger Avary and Bret Easton Ellis seems to be a good one and I can't wait to see their next film, Glamorama (another movie that should be very hard to bring to the screen).

Delightfully trashy and surprisingly intelligent, The Rules of Attraction is a very good book turned into an even better movie. If you enjoyed American Psycho or Less Than Zero (also based on Bret Easton Ellis novels) than you will love the finely crafted Rules of Attraction.

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