Rules of Attraction, The
[DVD Info]

Alright. As far as I could tell...there wasn't really a story. But! After much soul searching...this is what I came up with. The story mainly follows three people who are in college... Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon) who is a virgin and is trying her best to stay that way. Before she goes out every night she looks a pictures of people with STDs. She's in love with a guy who is in Europe and is saving herself for him. Next is Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) who proclaims himself to be an emotional vampire. He's a middleman drug dealer and a man whore. He keeps receiving love letters from a secret admirer (and he masturbates to the smell of the letters). He's in love with Lauren. Finally is Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder) who is gay (they say bi-sexual on the package...but he's as gay as it gets). He's in love with Sean and spends the movie chasing him (and Sean doesn't get it...at all). You get to know these people over a 3-month period and see their trials and tribulations dealing with hang ups on sex, drugs, and slutty roomates. Heh…whattya know…there is a plot!

"I only did it with her because I'm in love with you!" ~Sean.

They spent 20 minutes of the movie rolling it backwards. I'm sure that's a cool director technique and all but for 20 minutes?! I think not.

See below.

I have mixed feelings about this movie. For the most part it's a "pretty/rich people with problems" story. The point of the movie was to portray how jaded these young kids were to the point that they felt there was no point to letting anyone know who they really were deep down 'cause they'd never understand. Alright...it's COLLEGE for goodnessake! The only thing that's more superficial than college is high school. Anyway...the next problem was that...I don't know what kind of college they go to...but I've yet to experience parties where people walk around naked wearing nothing but masks on their faces and snorting cocaine. But that's just me. The good points? Well...what saved this movie from two stars was Ian Somerhalder (who plays Paul Denton, the gay guy). He completely steals the movie. He made the whole backwards time and rich people with problems thing worth it. He's the most real person in the whole movie. Ahaha...I totally recommend this movie just for his scenes. Also...Lauren wore the CUTEST outfits. Love it. Anyway, it's not a great movie...you don't really feel for the characters (except for Paul) and it's not realistic...but the parts that salvaged it are too good to miss. Because of this, the jury gives this flick:

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