The Rules of Attraction 2002

I have to confess I’m a huge fan of Brett Easton Ellis. His is not my favorite book but the movie is my second favorite after American Psycho.-----If we refer to physics, of course there are laws of attraction, you already know those that say that the opposite poles are attracted and the equal poles are rejected, but the laws of attraction that the story refers are the human ones. In full 2020, I think we have run out of these laws, I mean what does it take to like someone? Be beautiful? Have personality? Be intellectual? If you get someone who has a lot of money or is an influencer, no matter what else, it can attract you. Money is power, money is attraction. Men and women are governed by this absurd law, without discrimination. In human relations there are no laws, if you like someone, you will go for it, despite the lacking social statutes that bind us. The attraction is there and definitely does not need laws to exert its power.

The plot is told through the portrait of a young man who falls into the downward spiral, his relationships, his thoughts and the questions he will go through. The rules of attraction go beyond the understanding of a few people. The mythical American landscape is pure drugs, excesses, sex and alcohol.

Sean Bateman played by James Van Der Beek is a young man who lives in a sleepy state much of the time, when he wakes up he is not sure where he is. The only thing he cares about is his motorcycle, and being able to sell drugs to his rich acquaintances. The story is based on characters who fuck with everyone, who respect absolutely nothing, but who will hardly remember what they did the day before, be drowned in alcohol and feel nothing while having sex, but this is not exclusive to young Americans, but a faithful reflection of young people all over the world. The characters are quite American, a drug dealer, a homosexual, a girl who sleeps with everyone, an indecisive rich girl, and more that reflect what we have seen in a hundred books and movies. It is based on a book that serves as a reflection of a society that is still valid almost 30 years later.

The Rules of attraction, the second novel of the twentieth Bret Easton Ellis, after the famous Less than Zero, that was also made into a not very successful film. The story is an unusual document, elegant, ironic and stark, from the University of New Hampshire in the eighties. A gang of rich children revolves frantically in an obsessive round of sex, drugs and rock and roll, promiscuous and compulsive, trapped in a whirlwind and vertiginous whirlwind, in which hilarious moments are not lacking. It's the mocking story of A wants B, B wants C, C wants A; everyone ignores everyone's feelings, they give themselves to their persecutors and, closing their eyes, they dream of others. What are the laws of attraction to which these young people are subjected to? Is the desire of a body more intense than the desire to buy a designer suit? The kaleidoscopic narrative structure, in the form of monologues, it is bright and brutal, its style is surprisingly effective. The apathy, the despair and the anguish of living, the criticism of always divorced and absent parents, who just send money, the inability to communicate, except through music that sounds endless they barely camouflage themselves in the episodic mood and the consumption of drugs.

The writer-director is Roger Avary, who directed "Killing Zoe" and co-authored Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction." (Whether he casted James Van Der Beek as his lead because he looks more like Tarantino than any other working actor, we cannot guess.) In all of his work, Avary is fond of free movement up and down the timeline, and here he uses an ingenious approach to tell the stories of three main characters who are involved in, I don’t know, five or six pairings. He begins with an "End of the World" party at Camden College, the ultimate party school, follows a story thread, then rewinds and follows another. He also uses fast-forward brilliantly to summarize a European vacation in a few hilarious minutes.

.Avary weaves his stories with zest and wicked energy, and finds a visual style that matches the emotional fragmentation. I have no complaints about the acting, and especially liked the way Sossamon kept a kind of impertinent distance from some of the excesses. But by the end, I felt a sad indifference. These characters are not from life and do not form into a useful fiction. Their excesses of sex and substance abuse are physically unwise, financially unlikely and emotionally impossible. I do not censor their behavior but lament the movie's fascination with it. They do not say and perhaps do not think anything interesting. The two other Bret Easton Ellis movies, "Less than Zero" and "American Psycho", offered characters who were considerably more intriguing. We had questions about them; they aroused our curiosity. The inhabitants of "The Rules of Attraction" are superficial and transparent. We know people like that, and hope they will get better.

Cast:

Shannyn Sossamon as Lauren

Ian Somerhalder as Paul

Jessica Biel as Lara

Kip Pardue as Victor

Kate Bosworth as Kelly

Written and Directed by Roger Avary

Based On The Novel by Bret Easton Ellis