Rules of Attraction Review

At the centre of 'Rules of Attraction' - a dark and occasionally comic tale that shows us the sex, drugs and alcohol fuelled lifestyle of U.S. student life - is an outstanding performance by 'Dawson's Creek' heartthrob James Van Der Beek. He plays Patrick Bateman (younger brother of Patrick, the lead character in another of author Brett Easton Ellis novel's 'American Psycho'), and along with director (and former Quentin Tarantino ally) Roger Avary sets out to systematically destroy his goody two shoes image: we see Patrick engaged in shallow uncaring sex, casual drug taking, and even sat straining on the loo. 'A Knight's Tale' and '40 Days and 40 Nights' leading lady Shannyn Sossamon co-stars as the virginal Lauren, whose disinterest in Patrick inevitably piques his curiosity as he decides she must be the unknown admirer leaving him mysterious love letters. Just to complicate things further Ian Somerhalder plays Paul, Lauren's former boyfriend who is now gay and attracted to the oblivious Patrick.

This then is a movie that wears its gritty credentials on its sleeve, and in true Tarantino fashion, sets out to ignore a straightforward narrative by showing us the film's closing scene first, before flashing back (and on occasions flashing backwards!) months so we get to see the action that led there, from the different perspectives of the various characters. In truth 'Rules of Attraction' is on occasions hard work and highly irritating (enough with the backwards film!), and its easy to see why the film failed to find many admirers amongst US cinemagoers. However its determination to not offer the viewer the usual passive multiplex experience does, surprisingly, pay off by the end of the movie. Avary's avant guard filmmaking techniques and use of split screens help create some memorable set pieces (including a truly sickening bath tub suicide) and perhaps against your own better judgement you'll find yourself genuinely involved with the lives of these disparate characters, thanks primarily to some outstanding performances that mean you grow to like them - and Van Der Beek's Patrick in particular - even after its made blatantly clear how thoroughly self indulgent and unpleasant they all are!