The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 3 nominations
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSean Bateman, the character played by James Van Der Beek, is the younger brother of the infamous Patrick Bateman, the main character of American Psycho (2000), a film also based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis.
- GoofsSean's "secret admirer" takes each of the rings off her fingers and lays them on the side of the bathtub. When she turns on the bath water, the shot of her hand shows one of the rings still on.
- Quotes
Victor: [summarizing his vacation, nonstop, in just under four minutes] Took a charter flight on a DC-10 to London. Landed at Heathrow. Took a cab to the city center. Don't let people lie to you: hostels are for the ugly. I'm staying in Home House, the most beautiful hotel in the world. Called a friend from school who was selling hash, but she wasn't in. Met a couple of Brits who take me to, of all places, Camden Street. I flirt a bit at the Virgin Megastore, buy some CDs, then follow some girls with pink hair. I wandered around trying to get laid, until it started to rain, then went back to Home House. Ministry of Sound is dead, so I go to Remform - but it's Gay Night. I find the one hetero girl in the place and we dry hump on the dance floor. We cab it back to Home House. I strip her clothes off, suck her toes, and we fuck. I hung out for four or five days. Met the world's biggest DJ, Paul Oakenfold. Kept missing the Changing of the Guards. Wrote my mom a postcard I never sent. Bought some speed from an Italian junkie who was trying to sell me a stolen bike. Smoked a lot of hash that had too much tobacco in it. Saw the Tate. Saw Big Ben. Ate a lot of weird English food. It rained a lot, it was expensive, and I'm jonesing... So, I split for Amsterdam. The Dutch all know English, so I didn't have to speak any Dutch - which was a relief. I cruise the Red Light District. Visit a sex show. Visit a sex museum. Smoke a lot of hash. I meet a Dutch TV actress and we drink absinthe at a bar called Absinthe. The museums were cool, I guess. Lots of Van Goghs and the Vermeers were intense. Wandered around. Bought a lot of pastries. Ate some intense waffles. We bought some coke and I cruised the Red Light District, until I found some blonde with big tits that reminds me of Lara. I gave her a hundred guilders. In the end, she pulls me out, and I cum between her tits, even though I'm wearing a rubber. Afterward we made small-talk about AIDS, her Moroccan pimp, and herself. I wake to the sound of a wino singing. It's 8 AM and hot as blazes. I pretend to ice-skate around Central Station, while someone plays the sax. Trade songs with a Kiwi girl... Then split for Paris by train. Wander the Champs-Elysees. Climb the Eiffel Tower for only seven francs, because the ticket machine was broken. Got the hang of the Metro, took it everywhere. Went to a Ford model party and hooked up with a Romanian model named Karina. She chugs my cock at the Mariott Champs-Elysees, which is good. We played billiards, went shopping. I think she gave me mono. Drove a Ferrari that belonged to a member of the Saudi royal family. Made out with a Dutch model in front of the Louvre. Saw the Arc de Triomphe and almost became road-kill crossing the street... "Oakie" invites me to Dublin, so I catch an Aer Lingus flight and stay at the Morrison. Dublin rocks like you can't imagine. Oakenfold lets me spin some discs with him. Irish girls are as small as leprechauns. I swap hickeys with a drunk woman. After groping my abs and calling me "Mr. L.A.", she strips for me in the bath room of the club. Sneak into the Guinness factory and steal some stout so good my dick goes hard... I fly to Barcelona, which was a low-rent bust. Too many fat American students. Too many lame meat markets. I dropped acid at the Sagrada Familia, which was a trip to say the least. Cruise up the coast to the Museo Gala Dali, but had no more acid, which sucked. Some girl from Camden calls me on my cell, so I let her listen to the church bells in Cadaques. Canta Cruz is beautiful, but there are no girls here, just old hippies... So, I went to Switzerland where I, ironically, couldn't find anyone who had the time. Took the Glacier Express up the Schilthorn, which is beautiful in a way I can't describe... Euro Pass into Italy and ended up in Venice, where I met a hot girl who looks like Rachael Leigh Cook and speaks better English than I do. She's living for a year on only five dollars a day. We gondola around, buy some masks. She think's I'm a capitalist, because my hotel room costs more for one night than she's spending her entire trip. But she doesn't mind it so much when I pay the bills... I ditch her and hook up with a couple who obviously want a 3-some. Too much tension there, but the doofus offers to drive me to Rome, an offer I jump at. Traffic is bad and we're stopped for hours without moving. The wife turns out to be a freak. The guy starts to wig out on me. It's like a Polanski film... We stop for a while in Florence, where I see some big dome. A bomb goes off and I lose the weird couple, which is probably for the best... Ended up in Rome, which is big and hot and dirty. It was just like L.A., but with ruins. I went to the Vatican, which was ridiculously opulent. Stood for two hours to get into the Sistine Chapel, which - now that it's been cleaned - looks fake. I meet two under-age Italian girls who I try to talk into fucking each other while I jack off onto them. Bored, I buy them some ice cream instead. My hotel has a gym, so I work out. I bump into some guy from Camden who says he knows me, but I'm sure that he's a fag, so I lose him. I try to fart and instead shit my pants. Back in my hotel room, I masturbate and have a pain in my groin. That night, I dream about a beautiful girl, half in water, stretching her lean body. She asks me if I like it and I tell her she can clean fish with it. I don't know what it means, but I wake well-rested, masturbate in the shower, and check out... I make my way back to London and hang out in Piccadilly Circus. Hmm. Palakon. I swap shirts with some upper-crusty Cambridge chick. Hers was an Agnes B., mine a Costume Nationale. She acts stuffy and prudish, but is really wild underneath it all. She barely looks at my abs, though she wants to. The next day, I drop some acid and get lost in the subway for a full day and can't find my way out. I meet a cute girl who lets me jack off onto her as long as no cum gets onto her Paul Smith coat. We get stoned while listening to Michael Jackson records and the next morning I wake up talking to myself. I have a big bump on my head from flailing in my sleep. I get my stuff and barely make my plane back to the United States... I no longer know who I am and I feel like the ghost of a total stranger.
- Crazy creditsThe credits run backwards, starting with the disclaimer ("Any similarity to persons living or dead...") and rolling upwards to end with the cast.
- Alternate versionsThe French 2-Disc Special Edition entitled 'Les Lois De L'Attraction' is the longest possible version available. It has a couple of scenes not in the UK & US DVDs and also includes more of the suicide scene (including the girl actually cutting into her wrists, instead of just seeing her reaction) It also includes more relevant commentary tracks than the other DVD's available.
- ConnectionsEdited into Glitterati (2004)
- SoundtracksAnna Begins
Performed by James Van Der Beek
Words by Adam Duritz
Music by David Bryson, Marty Jones, Toby Hawkins, Lydia Holly and Adam Duritz
Published by 1993 EMI Blackwood Music Inc./Jones Falls Music/Knucklevision Music/Puppet Head Songs/Siren Says Music (BMI)
Unlike the recent slew of "teen comedies" or college films, where there is the hero, the sex obsessed friend, the cute high achiever girl, the crusty old dean or teacher, etc. RULES OF ATTRACTION is a film more based on the reality of the college world. The reality where Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) believes that he can have sex with a girl while being sober. Where Lauren Hyde (Shannyn Sossamon) believes that her boyfriend, Victor (Kip Pardue) is in Europe and is very faithful to her. But Lauren does what she can to get ahead in school by giving her professor, Mr. Lawson (Eric Stolz) sexual pleasures. The world where Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder) is a homosexual and feels that he can get any man he desires, and he feels that he can have a relationship with the hetrosexual Sean. And the real world, where Lara Holleran (Jessica Biel) has sex with the enitre football team.
This is harsh and cruel, bad sadly, it's the truth. This is what the real world is like, and director Roger Avary and writer Bret Easton Ellis do a excellent job showing it. When I watched RULES OF ATTRACTION the two things that blew my mind away was both the story and the directing. The story (which I described above) is pretty much the characters that you can't sympathize with, but instead you really know people like that. It's depressing to realize that, but sadly it's true. Then the directing by Roger Avary, who does a excellent job of telling one person's story, then rewinding everything and telling a different story from another character. Plus the brilliant scene of a split screen image of Sean and Lauren walking to the same class and as they talk to each other, the viewer is given the chance to see both full faces at the same time. Something that I haven't seen in film before.
There are images from RULES OF ATTRACTION that will be in my memory forever. One scene is how Lauren loses her virginity, the other is Laura dancing only in her underwear as she's about to get "gang bang" by the football team. But most of all, the extremely depressing sucide scene as the beautiful Harry Nilsson tune "Without You" is being played on the soundtrack. A very touching and emotional song for a strongly disturbing scene.
Lately I've been exposed to the French New Wave world of Jean Luc Godard and Jacuqes Demey, as well as the Neorealist world of Frederico Fellini and Michalengo Antonioni. Films that have symbolism about how society is on this planet. Film critics praise those films (especially those of Godard) as masterpieces and works of art. Now, those same hypocritcs are bashing RULES OF ATTRACTION as a pointless and cruel film. It is cruel, but it does make it's point. It does tell those now and those in years to come what the college life was really like in the early 21st century.
People and film critics usually scoff and critizie films that actually describe today's society, like FIGHT CLUB and AMERICAN PSYCHO (also written by Ellis). Critics would rather watch a film that takes place in La-La Land like LORD OF THE RINGS and GOSFORD PARK. A world that doesn't exist, but a world people would rather be in. Three years ago, I would hear people complain and say how horrible the movie FIGHT CLUB was. Now, there isn't a male college dorm room where I don't see a poster up for FIGHT CLUB (it's replacing the stereotyped John Belushi "Bluto" poster from ANIMAL HOUSE). Give it another three years, and RULES OF ATTRACTION posters will be up all over univeristy dorm rooms. This is going to be the next cult classic. Is it cruel, yes. Is it disturbing, yes (in fact I almost walked out after the first ten minutes). Is it brilliant and excellent, yes. And for that I applaud Roger Avary and Bret Easton Ellis. They are actually telling a story, the way the twenty something world is really like. A lot of people will be calling this a masterpiece a few years from now, it's October 2002, I'm calling it a masterpiece right now! ***** (out of five)
- Brogan
- Oct 17, 2002
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
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- Also known as
- Reglas del juego
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Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $6,532,619
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,532,410
- Oct 13, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $11,832,822
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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