Doogie D Review of The Rules of Attraction

The Rules of Attraction (2002)

Dull, and hardly as provocative as the filmmakers must have hoped

[3/10 · 17 October 2002]

I sat through RULES OF ATTRACTION and thought it was very, very poor. It's an adolescent idealization of sorts of college sexual experience, barely connected to reality. The characters are so unenlightened and, within the film, unmotivated, that it's really difficult to care; there are plenty of despicable characters in films out there which don't undermine sympathy toward the filmmakers' vision, so it's more than a bit disingenuous to argue that if someone doesn't like the movie in spite of its anti-heroes (ahem), that there's a generation gap or they're Missing The Point. Maybe folks who DO like this film are missing the point: there's a soggy symbolism at work in this movie ("Viktor: The test came back positive!" everyone at the door fails to register), and a cheapness in motivation which undercuts any good will the movie almost gets going. The girl's suicide is the result of myopic obsession, and we never noticed her because the film didn't either, until it's too late (and if that implies OMNISCIENT UNDERSTANDING or EMPATHY or TRAGEDY, then why are we spending so much time with the three leads?); people who are barely even introduced suddenly feel the world will come apart if their lust is unrequited; and the final stroke betraying the Lauren character as equally unaware as the rest of these folks is either a crime pulled on her character or a revelation that her performance wasn't so hot after all, since absolutely NOTHING pointed toward Lauren as delusional. Undoubtedly the film was supposed to be something of a bludgeoning sledgehammer, and instead it's more like being asked to watch as a second-year film student (I'll give Avary that much) performs with a moist towel. The worst film I've seen this year next to FULL FRONTAL. Pseudo-hip fetish-worship regurgitation. 3.5 out of 10.