The Rules of Attraction

The Rules of Attraction
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roger Avary
Produced by	Roger Avary Greg Shapiro
Screenplay by	Roger Avary
Based on	The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
Starring	James van der Beek Shannyn Sossamon Ian Somerhalder Jessica Biel Kip Pardue Clifton Collins Jr. Thomas Ian Nicholas Russell Sams Faye Dunaway Eric Stoltz
Music by	tomandandy
Cinematography	Robert Brinkmann
Editing by	Sharon Rutter
Studio	Kinsgate Films Roger Avary Filmproduktion
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 11, 2002 (2002-10-11) (limited)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English German
Budget	$4 million
Box office	$11,819,244

The Rules of Attraction is a 2002 satirical dark comedy film directed by Roger Avary, based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. It stars James van der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, and Kip Pardue.

Plot

The film takes place at the fictional Camden College, a liberal arts school in northeastern New Hampshire. The opening sequence introduces the three main characters - Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), and Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek), in turn. They are three college students at an "End of the World" party, and although they don't interact at the party, they share a certain apathetic perspective. Lauren, previously a virgin, is raped by a townie while being filmed by a film student; the humiliation culminates with the rapist vomiting on her back.

Paul is bashed by a deeply closeted jock whom he attempted to seduce, and Sean fails to recall the last time he had sex sober. After the introduction of each character, time moves backwards until we meet the next character. The story develops into a love triangle, where the main characters fall for one another but their love is never returned, leading to disastrous consequences.

The story then jumps back in time, and for the remainder of the film, we follow the lives of the characters and learn how they came to know each other. Throughout the film, the characters, Sean in particular, appear indifferent toward the people and events around them. For example, despite being set at a college, not one of the characters is ever shown attending a class.

At the end of the film, Sean rejects Paul, Lauren refuses to see Sean, Victor doesn't remember her anymore (or at least claims not to), a girl who has been sending Sean love notes commits suicide, Sean drives off late at night with the snow coming down, musing on what was and we never hear what he was thinking about more than anything as the film cuts to black. The end credits move in reverse, starting with the finish and ending with the cast list.

Cast of characters

• James van der Beek as Sean Bateman, a drug dealer.
• Shannyn Sossamon as Lauren Hynde, a virgin who is saving herself for Victor, her ex-boyfriend, who is travelling through Europe. She develops feelings for Sean, which dissipate when she discovers him in bed with her roommate. Eventually she is raped by a 'townie' at a party.
• Ian Somerhalder as Paul Denton, Lauren's bisexual ex-boyfriend. He develops a sexual attraction to Sean, who eventually rejects him.
• Jessica Biel as Lara Holleran, Lauren's promiscuous roommate.
• Kip Pardue as Victor Johnson, Lauren's promiscuous ex-boyfriend.
• Clifton Collins, Jr. as Rupert Guest, a high-strung, drug dealer who is owed a large debt by Sean.
• Thomas Ian Nicholas as Mitchell Allen, a weaselly cohort who seems to idolize brutish Victor.
• Russell Sams as Richard "Dick" Jared, an old friend and former fuck buddy of Paul's. His mother is a friend of Paul's mother.
• Faye Dunaway as Mrs. Eve Denton, Paul's mother.
• Eric Stoltz as Mr. Lance Lawson, a college teacher who tries to seduce Lauren.
• Fred Savage as Marc, a heroin-addicted student who owes Sean money for drugs.
• Theresa Wayman as "Food Service Girl", an unnamed character who writes Sean love notes that he mistakenly believes come from Lauren.
• Kate Bosworth as Kelly, a girl from the party whom Sean takes back to his room.
• Jay Baruchel as Harry, a French exchange student and friend of Paul.
• Joel Michaely as Raymond.
• Clare Kramer as Candice.
• Swoosie Kurtz as Mimi Jared, Richard's uptight mother.
• Ron Jeremy Hyatt as the piano player.

Production

The film was shot at the University of Redlands in California.^{[citation needed]}

The film was one of the first studio motion pictures to be edited using Final Cut Pro. Using a beta version of FCP 3, it demonstrated to the film industry that successful 3:2 pulldown matchback to 24fps could be achieved with an off-the-shelf product. Roger Avary, the film's director became a spokesperson for FCP, appearing in print ads worldwide.^[1][2]

Music

Much of the source music and score is by the duo of Andy Milburn and Tom Hadju, collectively known as tomandandy. Additional songs that are in the film are from the era in which the book takes place, including the Cure, Love and Rockets, Blondie, The Go-Go's, Yazoo, and Erasure. The film also includes songs by The Rapture, Milla Jovovich, Der Wolf, and Serge Gainsbourg.

Releases and versions

Multiple versions of the film exist, as cuts were made so it could receive less restrictive ratings in the U.S. and other areas.

Lions Gate originally received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, but director Avary made cuts to the film in order to achieve an R rating, for "strong sexual content, drug use, language, and violent images".

The Australian version of the film is uncut, retaining 22 seconds that were removed in the R-rated US version.^{[citation needed]}

The French 2-Disc Special Edition entitled Les Lois De L'Attraction is the longest known version available.^{[citation needed]} It contains a small number of scenes not shown in the US and UK DVDs and also includes more footage of the suicide scene (including the girl actually cutting into her wrists, instead of just seeing her reaction). It also includes more content in commentary tracks than the other DVDs available.

The uncut version was shown at UK cinemas. However, the BBFC, under its power as censor under the Video Recordings Act 1984, shortened the suicide scene, even at the highest (18+) rating.^[3]

Reception

Critical reception

The Rules of Attraction received decidedly mixed reviews—getting 44% "rotten" reviews from Rotten Tomatoes,^[4] and faring slightly better on Metacritic, getting a score of 50 out of 100 from reviewers, though with an average score of 7.0/10 from users.^[5] According to The New York Times, "if The Rules of Attraction,...is a much more faithful novel-to-screen adaptation than American Psycho, its reverence for its source proves to be its biggest problem. Where Mary Harron re-invented American Psycho as an elegant comic horror film, Roger Avary, who wrote and directed The Rules of Attraction, dives headlong into the depravity roiling in the student body of the fictional Camden College. Where Ms. Harron shrewdly created a surreal, high-styled ambiance for Mr. Ellis's monstrous humanoids to rattle around in, Mr. Avary wants to convince us that his movie's dissipated symbols of late capitalist excess really exist. The harder the movie tries to shock, the shriller it rings."^[6] Richard Corliss characterized the film as a "frenetically chic look at a daisy chain of collegiate craving...Sex, drugs and rack 'n' ruin; pretty people doing nasty things to one another...honestly, what more could you want in a movie?" ^[7]

Author's reception

Bret Easton Ellis has said, “My favorite movie out of the four was The Rules of Attraction. I thought it was the only one that captured the sensibility of the novel in a cinematic way. I know I’m sounding like a film critic on that, but I’m talking about that in an emotional — as the writer of the novel. I watched that movie and thought they got it in a way that Mary Harron [director of American Psycho] didn't and Less Than Zero didn't.”^[8]

Box office

The film grossed $11,819,244 worldwide on a budget of $4 million, thus making the film a minor box office success.^[9]

Awards

At the 14th GLAAD Media Awards, the film was nominated for Best Film - Wide Release by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, losing to The Hours.

Cult following

Though the film has inspired mixed critical reaction, it has become something of a cult classic, which was covered by The A.V. Club for their "New Cult Canon" feature.^[10] In an April 2009 interview, author Ellis stated that the film adaptation of The Rules of Attraction came closest of all the movies based on his books to capturing his sensibility and recreating the world he created in his novels.^[11] In 2009, the film was shown on Film4 as part of the "Great Adaptations" series.^{[citation needed]}

Home video release

The DVD was released on February 18, 2003 by Lions Gate Entertainment. The DVD includes trailers and an audio commentary by Carrot Top, despite having nothing to do with the making of the film, does it because "they couldn't find anyone else to do it."^{[citation needed]} He often comments on the attractiveness of each actress, begs Eric Stoltz for work every time he's on screen, and even occasionally sings along with the songs in the film, all the while making a number of self-deprecating jokes. The DVD also features other commentaries, technical and such.

See also

• Less Than Zero (novel)
• Less Than Zero (film)
• American Psycho (novel)
• American Psycho (film)
• Glamorama
• Glitterati

References

External links

• The Rules of Attraction at the Internet Movie Database
• The Rules of Attraction at AllRovi
• The Rules of Attraction at Box Office Mojo
• The Rules of Attraction at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Rules of Attraction at Metacritic
• The Rules of Attraction at Empire Magazine
• Interview with Avary at L.A. Weekly
• "The Rules of Attraction" at The Village Voice
• Bret Easton Ellis talks film adaptations at Creative Loafing Atlanta