Starring: James Van Der Beek, Shannon Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Ian Sommerhaulder.
Directed by: Roger Avery
Review Written By: Joey D
Sex, violence, drugs and all manner of unruly language seems to ooze out of every recent motion picture that a once-tasteful Hollywood produces. Unfortunately, the majority of the above are used to extend the films time to the one hour and thirty minutes benchmark rather than add any substance to a sub par production.
Thankfully, the film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis’ controversial novel, The Rules of Attraction uses common sleaze to its advantage by breaking all taboo whilst maintaining a faithful reconstruction of an already brilliant book.
Set in the fictional American town of Camden, Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek), Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder) and Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon) are disturbed college students trapped in a destructive, mixed sexuality love triangle that’s fuelled by their hormonal delusions. Sean is constantly finding love letters from an anonymous admirer, Lauren breaks her vow of celibacy to seek out an appropriate replacement for her absent boyfriend and Paul is a homosexual male looking for companionship in an AIDS aware eighties.
As basic and familiar as the story sounds, Brett Easton Ellis’ play on words aided by Roger Avery’s artistic direction make this a thoroughly mind-bending assault on the eyes. The film begins with Lauren’s introduction to her side of the story which, as written in the book, starts mid-sentence. The proceeding ‘End of the World’ party scene expertly weaves Lauren, Sean and Paul’s introductions together using camera trickery, such as reverse motion and camera trail diversions, creates an unnerving introduction to an extremely relentless ‘head fuck’.
The Rules of Attraction does not contain an overflow of barely existent characters that are mentioned towards the beginning but are never actually addressed to the camera, instead it uses its less important characters to further extend the web of lust and deceit. There are notable cameos from Kate Bosworth, Eric Stoltz, Clifton Collins Jr and a show stealing scene, featuring Faye Dunaway and Russell Sams.
The controversy that surrounded the film on its release is not completely media induced hype. The scenes of a graphic nature which include gratuitous sex/rape, offensive language and a sensationally nasty suicide moment were penned to make the censor’s heads spin. In fact, the only place in Europe to obtain a full uncut release of the film is in France where the suicide scene and Lauren’s rape encounter are in their full entirety.
The film’s artistic direction may not be to all tastes, its controversy may be a reason to stray for weaker natured viewers and the thought of seeing James Van Der Beek as anyone other than Dawson Leary might suggest a bold career move but the Rules of Attraction delivers all the factors required to boost an art film into mainstream cinema.
Quite possibly the most important film ever.
MOVIE MAESTRO RATING:
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