Marketing is truly a deceptive process. The trailers and advertisements made it seem like "The Rules of Attraction" would be yet another mindless sex comedy, some high budget version of "MTV Undressed." Starring all the requisite hot young Hollywood stars, including James Van Der Beek (Dawson himself), and even having a special promoting it on Comedy Central, it appeared that this would be a rehash of "American Pie" and its ilk.
Surprisingly, it turns out this film is not a comedy at all. There are a few mildly humorous bits, but it is mostly a depressing chronicle of vacuous college students suffering the consequences of drug use, meaningless sex and failed relationships. But that still does not mean that this film was any good.
"The Rules of Attraction" is still every bit as empty and meaningless as all the comedies its marketers portray it to be, albeit in a nihilistic and morbid way. Just think of it as "MTV Undressed" with drugs, suicide and a swarm of overdone cinematic tricks.
There really is no plot to speak of, just a story about the complicated love triangle between Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek), Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon) and Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder). To put it as simply as possible, Sean thinks that he is in love with Lauren, who is saving herself for her European-bound boyfriend Victor (Kip Purdue), while Paul, Lauren's bisexual ex-boyfriend, has a crush on Sean.
There are other complications however, but none of them are remotely interesting. All of the characters are one-dimensional and shallow, and they never seem interested in anything other than sex and drugs. And while attempts are made to satirize these characters, almost all of them fail miserably.
The director Roger Avary obviously seems more involved with using cinematic legerdemain than in adeptly critiquing his characters. In this film, he seems particularly enamored with running scenes backwards, soundtrack and all. The first time he does this, it seems somewhat interesting, but around the fourth time he does it, you half expect to hear Paul McCartney reciting his recipe for lentil soup.
Not all of his tricks are that annoying -- especially one scene where Victor recounts his adventures in Europe, which plays like a delirious spoof of a sequence from "Clockwork Orange" -- but they are never more than window dressing for a moribund script and story.
As can be expected with a poor script and characterization, the acting is not particularly interesting. Van Der Beek does a passable job as the manipulative drug-dealer Sean. He portrays Sean with enough sleazy, drug-addled intensity to make him briefly interesting at times before the script drags him down. At the very least, the audience is not forced to endure his ridiculous Texas accent from "Varsity Blues" again.
Shannyn Sossamon has the unenviable task of trying to impart some charisma to the most underwritten of the three main characters, and she actually succeeds in giving Lauren one more ounce of verve than seems possible. Still, it is insufficient to overcome the massive deficiency of her character.
Ian Somerhalder lucked out and got the character involved with about the only comedy in this otherwise melancholy film. Paul sits back nonchalantly as his gay friends overreact when one of them gets extremely drunk and they rush to the hospital. He is also involved in perhaps the best scene in the entire movie. Paul has gone to have dinner with his mother Eve (Faye Dunaway), her friend Mimi (Swoosie Kurtz) and her son Dick (Russell Sams). While Eve and Mimi pop pills and drink in the sedate hotel restaurant, there are cuts to Paul and Dick, both in their underwear, dancing to George Michael's "Faith."
Still, despite the valiant attempts of the actors, nothing can redeem this film from the dour mire that it sinks into. What seemingly is supposed to be a satire of disconnected, self-indulgent youth becomes a disconnected film whose director indulges in cheap cinematic tricks.
At one point in "The Rules of Attraction," Lauren tells Sean, "No one really knows anyone." Sadly, the film never makes the audience want to know any of these pathetic, uninteresting characters. And, to top it all off, the producers of this dreary mess try to pass this off to the public as a comedy. How unfunny.
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