We
popped along to the preview screening of The Rules of Attraction,
to find out what it's all about...
The Rules of Attraction adapted from a novel by Bret "American
Psycho" Easton Ellis, by director Roger Avery (director
of the cult classic Killing Zoë and an Oscar winner for
co-writing Pulp Fiction) is a scathing satire on the vacuity
of rich American teenage youth. Set in an imaginary liberal
arts college in New England the film follows, principle characters,
Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek, or Dawson from Dawson's Creek),
Paul Denton (played by the impossibly good looking Ian Somerhalder,
Young American's) and Lauren Hyde (Shannyn Sossamon, the female
lead in A Knight's Tale) through a sophomore year of decadence
and hedonism.
Avary's use of a non-linear time scale and
flashy camera shots make this an exercise in post-modernity.
Indeed Sean is often shot in a psychotic The Shining pose,
an example of a hint of irony often present.
It starts (and ends) at the "End of
the World Party" (there is an overriding sense of apocalypse,
a bloated culture in its death throes perhaps) and then we
zoom back to the beginning of term.
Sean, a lothario, is a drug dealer heavily
in debt. His dark heart thaws when he meets Lauren, an artful
soulful virgin who is trying to wait for her boyfriend Victor
(Kip Pardue) who has forgotten her during the archetypal travel
Europe debauch (hilariously rendered in fast-forward). Paul
(brilliantly played by Somerhalder) is in love with Sean,
who doesn't care. Sean thinks Lauren is sending him love letters,
there is a suicide (presented as an orgasm). It feels disjointed,
the characters don't seem developed, but this was clearly
Avary's aim, the emptiness one feels whilst watching is the
emptiness this is a study of.
Despite all the livid things they get to
touch the kids are unhappy, wild; "I just want to know
you", Sean says to Lauren; "No one knows anyone
else, ever", she replies. Purest nihilism.
Reviewed By Alistair Hann
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