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"The Rules Of Attraction" was written for the screen and directed by Roger Avary, who previously directed a kick ass heist movie called "Killing Zoe." While this one is not quite as good as that, it certainly does have it's moments and takes a lot of risks that you don't see in other movies. This movie is engulfed in the world of spoiled rotten brats who have handed just about everything to them on a silver platter. Now they spend their time getting high and hopelessly inebriated at endless parties at their preppy New England college. These selfishly spoiled characters are a common fixture of the work of Bret Easton Ellis, whose book this movie is based on. While we may (and probably should) despise all of these characters for what they do to others and themselves, Bret shows their humanity which is just underneath, desperately wanting to come up to someone they can't stop thinking about. It's that humanity that gives this movie another dimension to it's characters, and that kept me from hating these characters completely. This is certainly a movie that offers a lot of young actors their opportunity to almost permanently shed their nice or squeeky clean image for something that is the complete antithesis of that. We got actors here from "Dawson's Creek" and "7th Heaven" that are clearly desperate to break from the shackles of their sterile characters before they end up becomming permanently inseparable from them. The biggest surprise here was James Van Der Beek who plays Sean Bateman, a drug dealer and distant relative of Patrick Bateman from "American Psycho." You can never really figure out if he is telling the truth about everything he goes through or not. He's an opportunist who preys on the weaknesses of others, but you end up seeing in him (as well as in the other characters), a desperate longing for something pure and for someone to connect with in a world where they more often than not feel disconnected from everyone around them. James came across as very believable here, and Dawson himself was nowhere to be found. I bet he was just dying to play a role like this. I bet that was the same case with Jessica Biel of "7th Heaven" fame. She has more than shed whatever nice girl image she had from that show over the past few years, and I bet that this was her first real opportunity to do that. She plays Lara Holleran, roommate to Lauren Hynde (who is played by Shannyn Sossaman) who shares a lot of experiences with. Lara probably comes off as the most shamelessly selfish character in this film as she manipulates both the men and women around her to get what she wants. She ends up bedding the two potential suitors for Lauren Hynde in the movie, all the time making Lauren believe that neither of them will be all that interested in her, but all the while we know that Sean at least is completely infatuated with Lauren. Shannyn Sossaman probably has probably the most pure character in this film (although that is probably a bit of an overstatement) with her character of Lauren Hynde. Her character is a virgin, and we see her constantly looking through a book with pictures of venereal diseases perhaps to protect herself by reminding her own mind of the consequences that could befall her if she is not careful. And then there is also Paul Denton, played by Ian Somerhalder, a gay man more concerned about a date he has (or thinks he has anyway) with Sean that a gay friend overdoing on drugs is more of annoyance than a genuine concern for him. He thinks he knows how Sean feels about him, and he cannot get him out of his mind. To ssay that Denton has a crush on Bateman is an understatement. Basically, this movie is a love triangle of obsession as one character desperately pines for the other, while that same character is pinning away for someone else. In an atmosphere filled with shallow pursuits, all of them want something more pure and honest and real. Roger Avary hides no taboos in this movie. There are drugs, there is drinking, sex, date rape, suicide, attempted suicide, etc. He uses a lot of split screens in this movie that are effective in separating different moods in the same scene. One moment has him bringing the split screens for Sean Bateman and Lauren Hynde together. It's a brilliantly seamless technical move that I would love to know how the filmmakers accomplished it. This movie got a plethora of negative views when it first came out, and I can see why. People reacted negatively to the charactersk, and there is really nobody redeeming here. But then again, do all characters in a movie need to be likable in order for you to appreciate it? At the very least, we come to understand the desperate yearnings of these characters and can see ourselves in those needs. That's where I think the movie is the strongest. I can sum up the fustrations of the characters with the title of a brilliant Nine Inch Nails song: "I just want something I can nev email this review to a friend
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