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The Rules of Attraction (2002)
In director/writer Roger Avary's mean-spirited, repulsive,
crude, and depressing romantic (black) comedy - about an
intense love triangle between a group of late-1980s liberal arts
students (mostly spoiled, over-privileged, shallow, miserable bohemian
nihilists, who were amoral, debauched, hedonistic and promiscuous),
at Camden College (fictional) on the East Coast (New Hampshire) -
all were seeking love with the wrong person:
- in the film's opening after a few quick titles,
the main female protagonist was introduced at an "End of the
World" Party held in December
-- pretty co-ed Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), a student
at NH's Camden College (fictional); she was explaining (in an interior
monologue) how she lost her virginity at the party: "It's
a story that might bore you, but you don't have to listen, because
I always knew it was going to be like that. And it was, I think,
in that last year, or actually weekend, really a Friday in December
at Camden, and this was years ago when I was a different person,
and I was so drunk that I ended up losing my virginity. I lost
it to some guy who I thought was a ceramics major, but was actually
either an NYU film student who was just up to Camden for The End
Of The World, or a townie. I actually had my eye on someone else
that night -- Victor..."
- she told how she had planned to lose her virginity
to someone else who was at the party - she had an on-going infatuation
for self-centered, shallow, and very promiscuous Victor Johnson
(Kip Pardue), a drama major (who had
been gone most of the previous summer traveling in Europe); Lauren
was disturbed that Victor ended up having
sex with her slutty roommate - dumb-blonde, sexpot party girl Lara
Holleran (Jessica Biel) before dumping her - Lauren described
Lara's drunken, rampant sluttiness: "(she) did
the whole football team...She's now married to a senator and has
four kids. How time distorts things")
- spitefully deprived of what she really wanted, Lauren
described how she took Raymond (Joel Michaely), a film student,
to an upstairs room to smoke dope and to have sex, where she passed
out and then awoke to find herself being raped from behind by
the townie (Chasen Hampton) - who threw up on her - while Raymond recorded
it; she
regretted not losing her virginity to Victor: ("I
had actually lost my virginity to a townie. This wouldn't have
happened with Victor. He would have taken me gently in his big,
strong Drama major arms, and undressed me quietly and expertly,
taken my bra off with grace and ease. And it probably wouldn't
have hurt. I should have given myself to Victor last term when
I had the chance"); she realized her life was in a major stall:
("I
always knew it would be like this. I just get the feeling my life
lacks forward momentum. Like everything is moving by so quickly
that time just seems to stop") - and then suddenly, the film began
to run in reverse (or rewind), returning to the party in progress downstairs
Lauren's "End of the World" Party Rape
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Film Student
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Townie
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Lauren
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- a second individual, part of a love triangle, was
introduced: Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), formerly Lauren's dating
partner - he parroted Lauren's words to connect them together:
"I just get the feeling my life lacks forward momentum, you know?
Like everything is moving by so quickly that time just seems to stop";
he was a
sexually-ambitious bi-sexual who was in continual
lustful pursuit of homosexual hook-ups; he gazed across the party
room at an unidentified, oblivious male (Sean Bateman, see below)
as his voice-over spoke: "I imagine all the things in life that never
were, and all the things that could have been"; after taking ecstasy, he
failed in an attempt to have sex with a conflicted, closeted male
jock student at the party when they went to an upstairs room; the
male rejected Paul, kicked him in the groin, and threw him against
a wall as he threatened: ("I'm not gay. You're lucky I don't kill
you") - again the film went into rewind, to go back in time for a
third introduction
- Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) was then introduced
at the "End of the World" party; he was
another of Lauren's ex-lovers - (with another interior monologue),
a messed-up drug-dealer; at the party, he was disappointed when he
saw Lauren venture upstairs with the NYU film student; he tore up
what he thought were anonymous love letters (on purple paper) from
Lauren; in his interior monologue, he described himself as a predatory
user of women for sex: ("an emotional vampire - I feed off of other
people's real emotions. I search for this night's prey"); he
left with blonde Kelly (Kate Bosworth) - who followed him to his
dorm room where they had emotionless sex (the monologue shifted to
a distant 3rd person narrative: "Something
was wrong, something was missing, he didn't know what. Confused,
he started to f--k her. Before he came, it hit him -- he can't remember
the last time he had sex sober")
- the opening credits played (backwards) - the remainder
of the film was a flashback (or rewind) to the beginning of the college's
first term months earlier
- after an almost 6-minute montage (to the tune of
a re-recorded version of Donovan's "Colours"), Sean ran into Lauren
in a classroom hallway (in split-screen) after their class was unexpectedly
cancelled; they both appeared attracted to each other (as the image
moved to a two-shot); as she left, he made the assumption that purple
love letters he had received were from her
Sean and Lauren Meeting in a Classroom Hallway
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Split-Screen: Sean and Lauren (Two Coeds)
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Sean Bateman
(James Van Der Beek)
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Lauren Hynde
(Shannyn Sossamon)
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Sean - Mistakenly Believed Purple Love Letters
Were From Lauren
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- at a "Pre-Saturday Night Party Party," Sean was hoping
that Lauren would be there, but her cocaine-addicted roommate Lara Holleran
(Jessica Biel) told him that she had purposely discouraged herself
from attending - by looking at an illustrated book of venereal diseases;
however, when Lauren did arrive, Sean had already left the party
to do drugs with Paul; when she met up with
her Art History professor Lance Lawson (Eric Stoltz) at the party,
Lauren ultimately decided to go with him to his office and lose her
virginity; when she asked: "So
are we gonna do it here on the couch?",
he insisted on a "hummer" or oral sex instead ("What?
F--k? Oh, are you mad? I would lose my tenure. And I'm a married
man") - and he promised grade improvement in exchange: "I've
heard you're talented, Miss Hynde. And it certainly can't hurt your
GPA" - as her head went below the frame into his lap - to the
tune of Verdi's Aida Grand March
- at the next "Dress to Get Screwed" party,
Sean decided to hook up with Lauren's back-stabbing, cocaine-snorting
roommate Lara in an enticing pink baby-doll outfit; during
sex in her dorm room, Sean (under the influence of 'shrooms) fantasized
that he was having sex with Lauren, and realized that he really loved
her instead of Lara - he attempted to cover Lara's face with his
hand so he couldn't see her, while imagining Lauren in her place:
(voice-over: "Disillusionment
strikes. After all my pining for Lauren, this -- her roommate. The
inevitable conclusion. It's like bad poetry-- and then what? I'm
still hard, so I keep on going. She's groaning now. Humping up, down,
up. Is it ever going to end? I should never have done this. I should
have kept it innocent.... I put my hand over her mouth. She comes,
licking my palms, snorting. It's over")
- at the same time, an un-named heartbroken, pig-tailed
female college student, known as "Food Service Girl" (Theresa
Wayman) was revealed to have been the secret admirer who was writing
love letters (on purple stationary) to Sean, and spying on him from
afar for some time; she was suicidally depressed and upset when she
saw Sean leave the party with Lara - and it led to a tragic, intensely-dramatic
suicide scene; during the sequence, she read (in voice-over)
her final purple letter that Sean would pick up in his mailbox
- in the scene, the suicidal coed slashed her wrists
in a dormitory bathtub of warm water - with her voice-over: "I've
written this last letter because I know I'll never have you. I stood
in the corner and watched you go off with her. She's so beneath you.
You probably did it just to hurt me. Well, it worked, you hurt me,
and there's nothing else I can do. There won't be any more notes.
It's last call";
in gigantic closeups, she turned the bathtub faucet to 'H" (hot),
lit candles, placed three rings on the side of the tub, along with
a razor blade; she then removed her clothing, reclined back, and
proceeded to slit the veins in her arms under the water; while she
was bleeding to death, Harry Nilsson's plaintiff and overwrought
song "Without You" played, with an ironic tone
- Sean and Lara were interrupted when Lauren returned
to their dorm room and discovered that Sean had been with Lara for
sex - she was extremely disillusioned and upset; Sean begged
for understanding: "I
only did it with her because I'm in love with you"; after
Lauren swiftly left, she discovered the Food Service Girl's naked
body, and pulled her corpse from the bloody water; the next day,
at Lauren's dorm room door, Sean tried to talk to her ("Lauren,
I love you"), but she
ordered:
"Leave, Sean!"; he yelled back: "Since when does f--king somebody
else mean that I'm not faithful to you?"; in the hallway, Lara
came up to Sean and told him: "Face
it, you f--ked up"; he punched her in the face
- distraught after being dropped
by Lauren, Sean made numerous attempts to take his
life, including hanging, slitting his wrists, and overdosing on Advil
and Nyquil - but he awakened alive and in a stupor; when all
failed, he lured her to his room where he faked his death by slitting
his throat, further upsetting and alienating her - she reacted: "You're
so sad. Sean, you're sick"
- one of the lengthiest, and most rapid-fire monologues
ever recorded was delivered by Victor, Lauren's traveling boyfriend,
who hurriedly described his summer back-packing European vacation
(in voice-over) to friends in a diner - a complete drug and sex-fest:
(excerpts) "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...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.... 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...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...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...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....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 wake well-rested,
masturbate in the shower, and check out. I
make my way back to London and hang out in Piccadilly Circus...
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
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"
Victor's Rapid-Fire European-Trip Sojourn - A Montage
(From London to Amsterdam to Paris to Dublin to Barcelona, to Switzerland
to Venice, Florence and Rome, then back to London)
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- after Victor returned from his adventurous, sex-filled
holiday through Europe, Lauren was expecting to have sex with him
- and had been saving herself for him (she had a picture of him on
her dresser)
- at the same time, Sean tried to approach Lauren one
last time, attract her attention, and have her understand his strange
actions toward her: ("I
really did try to kill myself. Just before I faked it"); she
rejected him when she told him it was over because she was in love
with somebody else - her old boyfriend Victor; he pulled out the
final letter from the suicidal girl - and still had the mistaken
belief that it had come from Lauren; she was confused and didn't
know what he was talking about: ("Wow! Deal with it, Sean. It's
over. Rock and roll");
he vowed that he only wanted to get to know her: ("Lauren, I
want to know you"), but she told him that he could never know
her: ("What
does that mean, "Know me"? 'Know me.' Nobody knows anyone
else, ever! You will never, ever know me"), and she coldly walked
off and abandoned him; the camera tracked a single delicate snowflake
(CGI) as it descended and landed on the corner of the rejected lover's
left eye, and then melted into a tear
A Snowflake Tear on the Corner of Sean's
Left Eye
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- on her way to Victor's dorm room to meet him for the
first time after his trip, when Lauren approached Victor and kissed
him, to her dismay, he seemed to be completely unaware of her - he
told her: "You smell really good, but I don't know who you are...I'm
sorry, I don't have the slightest idea who you are right now. Really,
it's, it's totally blank... Should I know you?"; it was revealed
that he was having sex in the room with another female
- as Sean sat in the falling snow at an outdoor theatre
while drinking a bottle of whiskey, Sean was approached by Paul,
who expressed his interest in being closer to Sean: "You know,
I find myself talking to you when you're not even around -- just carrying
on conversations....I just -- want to know you. Just want to know
who you are"; Sean spitefully answered with the same words Lauren
had just used to reject him: ("No one will ever know anyone. You're
not ever gonna know me....It means, Paul, you're not ever gonna know
me. Figure it out. Deal with it"); confused and hurt ("What the
hell does that mean?"), Paul left
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Sean's Ultimate Rejection of Paul - Using Lauren's
Words
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- the film's epilogue was a return (or replay) of the
introductory
"End of the World" party, where Lauren was in attendance;
Sean (who had ripped up the purple letters after seeing her venture
upstairs with the film student), had an epiphany and diverted his
course - he left the party (without Kelly)
- meanwhile, Paul conversed with Lauren on the front porch and then in the front
yard about their mutual friend Sean; Paul stated his understanding
that Sean was really in love with her, and mistakenly thought she
was the one writing purple love letters to him; she corrected him:
"No, I didn't put notes into anybody's box....Wrong person.
Wasn't me"; Paul: "Then, there's someone else." Lauren: "Doesn't
matter anyway. Not to people like him. Not to people like us";
they watched as Sean rode off alone on his motorcycle without knowing his destination
- Sean's voice-over ended the film (from his POV on
the bike): "I started driving faster as I left the college behind.
I didn't know where I was going. Someplace unoccupied, I hoped. At
first I thought there were things about her that I would never forget,
but in the end, all I could think about was --- (an abrupt cut)"
- the end credits followed, running backwards from "THE END"!
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Victor (Kip Pardue) - Lauren's Infatuation at Party
Bi-Sexual Paul Denton's (Ian Somerhalder) Failed Attempt At Sex with Male
at Party
Kelly (Kate Bosworth)
Sean Having Sex with Kelly
Sean's Love Letters From a Secret Admirer
Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder)
Paul with Sean at a Pre-Saturday Night Party Party
Lauren's Sexual Encounter with Professor Lawson (Eric Stoltz)
At the "Dress to Get Screwed" Party, Lauren's Roommate Lara
Holleran (Jessica Biel)
While Having Sex with Lara, Sean Imagined Being
with Lauren
Ignored Food Service Girl (Theresa Wayman)
Suicide of "Food Service Girl" Over Her Unrequited
Love for Sean
Lauren Finding Sean Having Sex with Lara
Lauren's Discovery of The Suicidal Girl
Sean's Failed Suicide Attempts: Hanging, Slitting His Wrists, and Drug
Overdosing
Sean's Faked Death
Lauren's Infatuation with Victor
A Further Break-Up Between Lauren and Sean
Victor's Complete Ignorance About Lauren
Epilogue: Paul and Lauren on Front Porch Talking About
Sean
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