Taglines: Rules are made to be broken.
This is a twisted story about sex, drugs, and college. Three disturbed students at Camden college get involved in a love triangle. Sean Bateman is a womanizing drug dealer who falls in love with virginal Lauren (not to be confused with her slutty roommate Lara,) because he suspects that she is his secret admirer, who is leaving notes in his box.
Although Lauren does like Sean, she is still infatuated with Victor (her shallow ex boyfriend) who is in Europe for a semester. Lauren used to date Paul before he came out of the closet, and now Paul has his eyes on Sean when he mistakes him for bisexual. Things get more complicated since all the side characters (including the mentioned Lara and Victor) are deeply disturbed as well. Everybody is only looking out for themselves.
The Rules of Attraction is a 2002 black comedy film written and directed by Roger Avary, based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. It stars James van der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Kip Pardue, Joel Michaely, Jay Baruchel, Faye Dunaway and Swoosie Kurtz.
The Rules of Attraction was shot at the University of Redlands in California. The film was one of the first studio motion pictures to be edited using Final Cut Pro. Using a beta version of FCP 3, it demonstrated to the film industry that successful 3:2 pulldown matchback to 24fps could be achieved with an off-the-shelf product. Roger Avary, the film’s director, became a spokesperson for FCP, appearing in print ads worldwide. The film grossed $11,819,244 worldwide on a budget of $4 million, thus making the film a minor box office success.
About the Story
Set at the fictional Camden College in New Hampshire, the film opens at the “End of the World” party, where students Lauren Hynde, Paul Denton, and Sean Bateman give apathetic interior monologues on their lives and briefly exchange glances with one another. Lauren, previously a virgin, takes a film student upstairs to have sex and passes out; she wakes to find herself being raped by a townie.
While the film student records it, and reflects on how she had planned to lose her virginity to Victor, her now ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Paul, who is gay, tries to have sex with a jock, only to be bashed when it turns out the jock is deeply closeted. A bruised and beaten Sean is shown tearing up a series of purple letters, before approaching and having sex with a blonde girl at the party.
The plot then moves backwards several months to the beginning of the school year, and explores the love triangle between Lauren, Paul, and Sean. Misinterpreting Sean’s friendliness, Paul mistakes him for a homosexual and makes several advances, to which Sean is oblivious. Concurrently, Lauren also finds herself attracted to Sean despite saving her virginity for her traveling boyfriend, Victor. Sean reciprocates her feelings, and assumes the anonymous, purple love letters he has started receiving are from Lauren.
While Paul is visiting his friend “Dick”, Sean is seduced by Lauren’s roommate Lara at the “Dressed to Get Screwed” party, who tells him that Lauren isn’t interested in him because she has a boyfriend. Despite having sex with Lara, Sean regrets it and realizes that he is in love with Lauren. It is then revealed that another, unnamed cafeteria girl is the author of Sean’s love letters; after seeing him leave the party with Lara, she sends him a suicide note before cutting her wrists in the dorm bathtub.
Lauren, finding Sean with Lara, runs to the girls’ bathroom in tears, only to find the unnamed girl’s body, leaving Lauren extremely distressed. Sean, still believing Lauren wrote the purple letters, misinterprets the unnamed girl’s suicide note and assumes Lauren never wants to be with him. Lauren decides to lose her virginity to her Art History professor Lance Lawson. But being married and worried about losing his tenure, he simply allows her to perform felatio on him instead.
After numerous failed attempts at suicide, Sean fakes his death and, unaware that Lauren recently found a corpse, unintentionally upsets her further when she finds him pretending to be dead. After stealing drugs from dealer Rupert, Sean tries to speak to Lauren again, asking only to know her. Lauren tells Sean he will never know her, and abandons him. She approaches Victor, who has finally returned to Camden College, only to find that Victor is having sex with Lara and does not remember who Lauren is, leaving her completely distraught.
Paul, upon finding a drunk Sean, tries to talk to him, parroting Sean’s own words by saying he merely wants to know him. Sean coldly rejects him, using Lauren’s words to say that Paul will never know him. Paul runs off in tears. Sean checks his campus mailbox in vain, only to find that the love notes have stopped. He is then cornered by Rupert and his Jamaican partner, Guest, and brutally beaten.
The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Directed by: Roger Avary
Starring: James van der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Kip Pardue, Joel Michaely, Jay Baruchel, Faye Dunaway, Swoosie Kurtz, Clara Kramer
Screenplay by: Roger Avary
Production Design by: Sharon Seymour
Cinematography by: Robert Brinkmann
Film Editing by: Sharon Rutter
Costume Design by: Louise Frogley
Set Decoration by: Teresa Visinare
Art Direction by: Christopher Tandon
Music by: tomandandy
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, drug use, language and violent images.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: October 11, 2002
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