Plot Synopsis
Camden College. Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) is the younger brother of depraved Wall Street broker Patrick Bateman. He's also a drug dealer who owes a lot of money to "fellow" dealer Rupert Guest (Clifton Collins, Jr.), as well as a well-known womanizer, for he sleeps with nearly half of the female population on campus. Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon) is, technically, a virgin. She's saving herself for her shallow boyfriend, Victor Johnson (Kip Pardue), who's left the States to backpack across Europe. Her slutty roommate, Lara (Jessica Biel), has the hots for Victor as well. Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), who used to date Lauren, is openly bisexual and attracted to Mitchell Allen (Thomas Ian Nicholas), who's dating Candice (Clare Kramer) to prove to Paul that he's not gay. Sean loves Lauren. Paul loves Sean. And Lauren may love Sean

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A not-quite dazzling array of cinematic tricks (split screens, freeze-frames, running the film backwards, rapid editing, etc.) are used to depict college students floundering in the pursuit of love and meaning. Drugs, blow jobs, pornography, booze, rape, masturbation, '80s pop tunes, beatings, suicide, attempted suicide, faked suicide, loss of bladder control, and trite pseudo-philosophy are on display as pretty young actors with squeaky-clean images (like James Van Der Beek and Jessica Biel) attempt to dirty themselves up. The Rules of Attraction comes to life for about five minutes when an actor named Russell Sams appears for an outrageous restaurant scene, then slumps back into terminal disaffection when he departs. Also featuring Shannyn Sossamon, Faye Dunaway, Swoozie Kurtz, Ian Somerhalder, Kate Bosworth, Eric Stolz, Fred Savage, and many strikingly good-looking young people. The filmmakers are attempting to depict the vacuousness of today's youth but only succeed in portraying the void in their own hearts. --Bret Fetzer