The Rules of Attraction

Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ novel of the same title, The Rules of Attraction is a typical film about college students who fall in love with the wrong people. Paul (Ian Somerhalder) is in love with Sean (James Van Der Beek), but Sean is infatuated with Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon), but Lauren just wants Victor (Kip Pardue), who is in Europe having sex with a different girl every night. So, Lauren settles for Sean, Sean sleeps with her roommate, Lara (Jessica Biel), who will sleep with anyone, and Paul fantasizes about sleeping with Sean while trying to sleep with straight men. No one ever gets what they want, but that is okay with the viewers, because the characters are so shallow and self-involved that for them to find happiness would be a slap in the face to anything decent.

In this sense, the film doesn’t stray too far from the novel, but there are some changes, or rather, ambiguities, that are cleared up in the film. Director Roger Avary utilizes the split screen technique, not just for recreational purposes, but to expose some truths that were not readily made in the novel. He uses artistic integrity to show that things aren’t quite what they seem, and that most of the characters are living in fantasy, refusing to accept the rejection and reality of their lives.

The acting is sub par, but what does one expect from a film about college kids. James Van Der Beek tries to break away from his good boy image by acting like he’s a hard-ass, pissed off all the time, but to me it just looks like he’s trying too hard. He’s incapable of acting with any subtlety; when he’s mad, his eyes go wide like a psycho, and when he’s…oh wait, madness is his only emotion. And when Sean’s with Lauren, when he’s happy, he still looks discontent. But that speaks more for the character than the actor, considering one of the themes is that no one is ever truly happy with their life. Shannyn Sossamon shows a lot more emotion than her character in the novel, but only when she pines for Victor, or when she catches Sean cheating on her with her roommate. Either way, while she doesn’t bring anything new to the role, she’s more tolerable than her co-star. Jessica Biel is underutilized, though it is not much of a loss. Cliff Collins Jr. plays a good paranoid, spastic drug dealer, but, like Van Der Beek, he overdoes it at times.

It’s hard to identify or empathize with any of the other characters, seeing as they’re spoiled, over privileged, and have little respect for themselves whatsoever. Lauren seems like a nice enough girl, but her naivety and lack of self-respect for her body makes it hard to really care about her. Sean Bateman is a lunatic. Paul Denton appears to be nothing but a pretty boy who wants to convert straight males into homosexuals. In Ellis’ novel, Paul Denton was a somewhat affable character, the guy one could root for, but here it seems as though the director didn’t have enough time to tell his story, so he just threw in whatever scenes were needed to make the main storyline flow easily. Ian Somerhalder does his best to keep his character alive, but ultimately it becomes Sean’s story, or rather, the story of a bunch of shallow college students who no one cares about. They do not even care for themselves. There’s nothing new under the sun, some say, and likewise, there’s nothing new in this film.