When it comes to movies, I’m not a fan of fancy storytelling techniques. All things being equal, I prefer linear timelines over flashbacks, flashforwards, and general jumping around. Of course, sometimes nonlinear scripts work brilliantly, with Pulp Fiction and Memento being two that immediately come to mind. But at other times, these techniques make the story completely incomprehensible.
So when I saw an overt rewind within the first 10 minutes of Roger Avary’s 2002 film The Rules of Attraction, I was immediately put on my guard. Would this technique detract from the overall film? Would the story still be intelligible? Would this gimmick continue throughout the film? Would it actually serve a purpose, or was it just a stylistic choice? Unfortunately, the answers were not positive.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Rules of Attraction follows the lives of three Camden College students as they make their way through typical undergrad experiences involving sex and drugs.
First up is Lauren (played by Shannyn Sossamon), a virgin who reads STD textbooks before heading out to parties in a bid to maintain her purity. She had been saving herself for Victor (Kip Pardue), a fellow student who is currently traveling through Europe, but now finds that she’s increasingly attracted to Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek).
We then get to see a bit more about Sean, who doesn’t seem to have any kind of emotional connection to the women he sleeps with. In fact, he’s completely apathetic to everyone except Lauren, whom he thinks is sending him love letters written on purple stationery.
And then there’s Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), an openly gay student who lusts after Sean. Paul goes out of his way to interact with Sean, setting up dinner dates and so forth even though Sean consistently blows him off and generally treats him poorly.
The film alternates between the points of view of these three characters, often giving us the same scene from the different perspectives. In this way, we get a somewhat more complete picture of what’s going on as the characters wander from one drug- or alcohol-fueled sexual encounter to the next.
My Reaction: My plot summary probably didn’t do much to enlighten you as to what this movie is all about. But that’s because of the nonlinear timeline, which makes it very difficult to capture (in words) what’s happening on the screen. There’s no traditional beginning, middle, and end to the story, as we start in medias res and end with the knowledge that these young men and women will continue behaving in exactly the same way despite everything that happened.
I guess I should mention here that I did not read the Bret Easton Ellis novel that this movie was based on, so I wasn’t privy to detailed character backgrounds or the complete story. Therefore, if some of these things were explained more fully in the book, just bear in mind that I didn’t have access to those explanations.
Anyway, I couldn’t get into this film at all. None of the characters were likable, which made the movie hard to sit through. Perhaps they weren’t supposed to be likable; that certainly has happened in cinema before. But in that case, at least the filmmakers should have made the characters interesting and given the audience a compelling reason to watch their exploits. As it was, all I could do was sit there and wonder what the point of the whole story was.
I also have to say that I thought James Van Der Beek’s acting was horrendous. What was up with that total psycho stare that he insisted on using several times throughout the film? God, I just wanted to reach through my TV and throttle him whenever he did that! He just looked so gross and unattractive that I couldn’t believe the Ian Somerhalder character would be after him. Yuck!!!
The only part I liked about the movie was the montage of Victor’s trip through Europe. That was very, very cool, and I ended up watching that clip three times before returning the DVD.
Other than that, however, this film had very little going for it as far as I was concerned. The acting was terrible, the plot was nonexistent, and the drug dealer subplot was ridiculous. At 34 years old, I realize I’m probably a decade older than the film’s intended audience, but still… I partied in college and it was nothing like this.
Because of all these different factors, I ended up actively disliking The Rules of Attraction. As a standalone, it felt like a completely pointless film, so I give it just 4.0 stars out of 10.