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Rules of Attraction, The
Lions Gate Films Inc.


6.9

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 55 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for strong sexual content, drug use, language and violent images

Starring James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, Kip Pardue, Kate Bosworth, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Joel Michaely

Set at an affluent New England liberal arts college, this film takes a satiric look at an emerging sexual triangle.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Roger Avary Bret Easton Ellis (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Roger Avary
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 18, 2003 Video: February 18, 2003 Theatrical: October 11, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The cast is a pitch-perfect assemblage of pretty young things, but James Van Der Beek, as a slit-eyed dorm stud, proves that he can be an actor of cruel force.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Rules needs that dose of hilarity. Ellis' satire, filtered through Avary's harsh lens, is hard to stomach, harder to ignore.

Time Richard Corliss

Sex, drugs and rack 'n' ruin; pretty people doing nasty things to one another...honestly, what more could you want in a movie?

LA Weekly Mark Olsen

It's so playful, wicked and unseemly, by the time you realize that the actual plot of this brilliantly sordid satire hasn't started, the party is already over.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Propelled by a fine Tomandandy score and a savvy assortment of seductive new-wave hits, Attraction is top-notch trash, a guilty pleasure designed for the decadent 14-year-old in everyone.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

At times darkly funny and at other times depressingly tragic. It's safe to say there aren't any movies out there quite like this one.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Further proof that so-so books often make better movies than good ones.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Oddly compelling.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

For all its kinetic energy, for all its camera tricks, for all its dark humor, there's still something a bit off about these Rules, and it's not really Avary's fault.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie feels more like a walk across campus than a movie. That's so depressing. On the other hand, each of these lost children is really looking for the same thing, ol' Mr. Love.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Roger Avary's crisp adaptation imbues the copious bad sex and general befuddlement of Bret Easton Ellis's solemn, echt '80s Bennington novel with a playfully obnoxious energy that is often funny and -- almost fun.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Actually I quite enjoyed the film -- but how do I get rid of this awful discharge?

Boston Globe Ty Burr

If there's one thing Avary gets right, it's the brutal use-or-be-used approach to interpersonal relations that Ellis laid out with numbing detail, and James Van Der Beek is down to the challenge as Sean Bateman: horndog, cokehead, ceramics major, and all-around jerk.

Variety Scott Foundas

Gets an ambitious, sometimes inspired but ultimately less than satisfying screen treatment from Roger Avary.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Some of its parts are nifty, but the sum of these parts is nothing.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Although it would be understatement to call their characters unsympathetic, Van Der Beek and Sossamon play their parts with such doomed passion that they have some affecting moments.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Hollow and pointless.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is no entry portal in The Rules of Attraction, and I spent most of the movie feeling depressed by the shallow, selfish, greedy characters. I wanted to be at another party.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Opens on a display of humiliation and human degradation at its worst and then rewinds, like a video surfer zipping back to replay a favorite scene, to the nominal beginning of the spiral.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's a small-minded and jejune film, and it feels strangely out-of-date considering how loaded it is with right-here-right-now signifiers.

Film Threat Todd Levin

The big screen has a very difficult time capturing the talent of James Van Der Beek - literally. The aspect ratio of projected film simply cannot accommodate the full breadth of his enormous melon head.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The harder the movie tries to shock, the shriller it rings.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Juices up the visuals with fancy camerawork and split screens, but it can't distract enough from the vulgarity of the material.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Most of the characters are one-dimensional, and Avary's over-the-top directing doesn't make them interesting for more than a few isolated moments.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Nearly every bodily fluid makes an appearance in "Rules," a mean-spirited paean to hedonism set at an East Coast college where students attend class only occasionally, and then only to perform oral sex on instructors.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Some movies just bring out your inner Matlock: a desire to grab young punks by the lapels, smack them against a wall, knock their cigarettes to the ground and wipe the sneers off their faces. Such is the case with the callow and cynical The Rules of Attraction.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Most of the characters are one-dimensional, and Avary's over-the-top directing doesn't make them interesting for more than a few isolated moments.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Avary has taken a pig's ear of a book and turned it into a pig's ear of a movie.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

And what of Roger Avary, the writer who shared the Academy Award for writing with Tarantino? He continues to plummet toward oblivion with The Rules of Attraction, which ranks with the Great Pyramid of Khufu as a monument to self-indulgence.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Looks and feels like a bad imitation of "Trainspotting" without any of that film's wit or charm.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Ugh. The Rules of Attraction is the kind of movie that leaves vague impressions and a nasty aftertaste.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chelsea E. gave it a10:
There is only one word that can properly portray this movie; real. The reality of the movie is almost disturbing. There is an undeniable college energy about it. Being a college student, I can completely relate to most of the characters and their actions. It’s so much more than just another portrayal of wild parties, drugs, and sex in most college flicks. Those movies show the superficial side of college students, while The Rules of Attraction allows the audience to identify with the actors and get a glimpse inside their souls. It focuses on the brutal reality of life… “Luck has nothing to do with it. Everything is preordained. Manifest destiny. You can stop time from happening no more than you can will the oceans to overwhelm the world, or to cause the moon to drop from her outer sphere. Luck has nothing to do with anything.”

John F. gave it a9:
A tough, forcefully abrasive adaptation of a flawed (and decidedly forgettable) Bret Easton Ellis novel? Roger Avery didn't do himself any favours in following up the empty (and ugly, and flat) Killing Zoe, but has gone on to inadvertantly create one of the most important films of this past decade. This is an angry, hugely inventive dissection, and one that mercilessly attacks (like all of the very best satire) EVERYBODY. Its nihilistic viewpoint is raw, but not without heart; the final, artfully composed twenty minutes wring the heart whilst also throwing arms in the air in utter disillusion. We, as a species, are fucked... but how did we let it come to this? The dearth of religion? The church of the self? Avary suggests nothing, merely letting us bathe in the horror of our own complicity. Much as I loathe many of this movie's supporters, it is almost inarguable that this is a film that's going to be avidly devoured for decades to come.

Ricardo R. gave it a10:
This as got to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. Critics say it's superficial, well guess what? Youth IS Superficial, and the american youth is one of most superficial on the planet, so this movie is nothing more than a loyal portrait of how college life is nowadays. Also the movie is extremely well directed in a sense that's totally innovative!

Disco_Stew gave it a0:
Rules Of Attraction is by far the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life, I am still recovering from it.

smile gave it a9:
This movie does't tell everything about the Elli's book, but it truly tells the highpoints. The cruel and narsistic way to deal with it works even better in film than realistic comedy. There is no need for searching under the surface. Camden surely lives in the moment or at least Parties, sex and rock'n roll are everything in college life. Everybody seems happy, but nobody isn't thats the real life.

Lana gave it a10:
This is one of the very best movies i've ever seen, because it was so REAL. Watching this film was like watching my own life. i have definately met many people in real life who are virtually identical to the types of characters in this film, and these situations are very realistic. The characters are selfish and narcissistic, greedy, thoughtless and cruel, just like real people. Finally, a film that shows something other then sugarcoated fairy tale fantasies of "love" that never happen in the real world.

J Ed gave it a9:
Not for the faint hearted or those with a heart of stone -- I found this to be absolutely compelling watching. Many of the characters are dislikeable but all of the main characters are all too human. This movie is about love (or more generally, longing for another human being). The central love "triangle" is really about everyone shooting off in different connections, never really connecting. "Do you every really know anybody?" No, you will never really know another human being. Shannyn Sossamon is fantastic and some of the "artsy" film techniques are truly creative and add depth This is thoughtprovoking stuff. Aside: I wonder how many of the low scores by users and mainstream reviewers are a (sub?)conscious reaction against the fact that a main character, one of the first we meet, is gay, and about the most honest depiction of what it's like that I've seen (that love can be hard for everyone and anyone).

Rules of Attraction, The Lions Gate Films Inc.

Rules of Attraction, The
Lions Gate Films Inc.