The Rules of Attraction

Campus drug dealer Sean (Van Der Beek) thinks Lauren (Sossamon) is sending him love letters. Lauren is in love with Victor (Pardue). Victor is travelling around Europe and sending e-mails telling of his exploits to Mitchell (Ian Nicholas). Mitchell is trying to escape from Paul (Somerhalder) at a party and Paul is in love with Sean but doesn't know how is get him to notice.

Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, this is a teen college movie that mixes hilarity with the macabre.

Director Roger Avary brings us a graphic and surreal look at US College live. Pulling no punches when it comes to depicting drugs, sex and suicide, The Rules of Attraction is a more realistic look at higher education in America than movies like Road Trip, Animal House or American Pie 2 even though it is riddled with bizarre but disturbed characters.

When you realise that Sean's surname is Bateman and writer Ellis also wrote American Psycho, making his brother Patrick, you now that you are in for a different kind of College movie. These are not your usual happy go lucky College kids but students with real issues, dark thoughts but also a enormous, overwhelming sense of self importance and arrogance.

James Van Der Beek leaves Dawson well and truly back at the Creek with his portrayal of Sean. Many TV actors tend to stay in similar roles to the one that made them a star but Van Der Beek shows that he is a very talented and diverse actor who can look extremely menacing when he needs to. You will never look at him the same way again after watching this movie. Shannyn Sossamon continues to show her potential as a leading lady with a challenging and sympathetic performance as Lauren. Ian Somerhalder is also good as Paul and Kip Pardue shines as Victor. His speeded up trip around Europe is one of the comic highlights of the picture.

Along with a very good young cast there is some ingenious direction by Roger Avary. Better known as a screenwriter than a director (Killing Zoe didn't really make any ripples) after his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, Avary utilises every camera technique in the book and intermixes some very original editing as well. A lot of the movie is shown backwards, in fact we start at the end of the movie and then we see the entire story in less than a minute as the plot rewinds to the start of the proceedings. He also uses split screen to great effect and the combination of all these techniques make this a cinematic delight to watch.

Even though it is slightly disturbing in parts and very surreal in others, The Rules of Attraction is how college movies should be made. The younger market has been played down to for to long and this movie finally treats them with a bit of intelligence.

Audio commentaries featuring stars Ian Somerhalder, Shannyn Sossaman and Kip Pardue, 'Anatomy Of A Scene' featurette, TV spots, Radio spots, Interactive menu & Scene access

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2003