The Rules of Attraction = the Rules of Unhappiness!!

The Rules of Attraction = the Rules of Unhappiness!!

The movie “The Rules of Attraction” directed by Roger Avary is based upon the novel of the same title by Bret Ellis. The story revolves around the incredibly spoiled and over privileged students of Camden College and is the backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.

The take home point of the movie for me was that every character in this movie, and in the sense of a larger picture, everyone in life is searching or rather chasing a dream that is not necessarily the best or the most achievable or attainable. Furthermore, what could possibly be available to one’s self, what possibly could be the best choice for a person, what probably is the choice one should make, is exactly what the person making the decision does not want.

In this case of this movie, the drug dealer wants the virgin; however, another character, named Mary, wants the drug dealer. And while the virgin likes someone else, she ends up settling for someone else. The bisexual classmate wants the drug dealer, while the drug dealer has no intention of being with him and just wants to take advantage of him. There is yet another character, played by Jessica Biel, whose main purpose it seems like is to ruin everyone else’s dream, as she does not seem to have one of her own to begin with.

The movie is set in a upper class setting of college kids, however, it’s message and moreover, its title, The Rules of Attraction, is very ironic, yet meaningful in its own way. While one would expect the title to suggest what the rules of attraction are, what the movie ends up depicting is exactly what the rules of attraction are not.

What we end up learning through this movie is that the rules of attraction are different for everybody, and while we are so consumed in the pursuit of our everyday life that we have a very confused view of who is the right person for us. Maybe it’s because we do not take the time to stop and think about what’s actually going on in our surroundings, maybe it’s because it easier to live in a false and fantasy type world that it is to actually face reality.

In the movie itself, we see the paths of all the characters cross in some way, and while all the characters are familiar with each other, we do not see even one of them discuss their terms of attraction with the other one. It’s almost of sense of entitlement among them that the other member will comply or rather feels the same way. To illustrate this theory, one can refer back to the movie and understand and see this relation in action. The drug dealer never actually sits and talks to the virgin to discuss his feelings about how he feels towards her. The character of Mary, the one who writes the secret love letters to the drug dealer, never actually knows him or talks to him. The virgin too, has a love interest, but she too, never takes the time to know if he feels the same about her, and she has a totally tainted view of how he actually is. The bisexual character is never actually seen discussing his sexuality with anyone during the movie, he just seems to move one from one attraction to another, but never actually finds a willing partner or confidant. He instead, just like all the other characters, seems to find only humiliation.

This trend of non-communication is evident among all the characters in the movie, and that essentially seems to be the main and constant factor throughout the movie. And in that regard we can sense that that was social environmental problem in 2002 when the movie was released and seems to be the social problem today as well.

The movie actually is pretty sad, as the main take home message is this, while everyone, at least as far as this movie goes, has the potential to find a good love interest/partner, as almost every character has a perfect opposite paired with them, they seem to be too engrossed in themselves and in their own life, to actually find their match. In fact, they are too busy chasing after what seems to be their unattainable match. This just further dives into and show us the main problematic theme of this movie, which is the issue of Mis-communication along with No communication.

The movie has much coloration to actual life, along with a very important meeeage, which is that basically IF you spend some time and look around you, if you take the time to talk to people, see how they feel about you and how you feel about them, you actually have the chance and opportunity to find what you are looking for. However, everyone seems to be so caught up in their life and so distant from others that they end up losing the best thing that never happened but probably should have.

Works Citied:

The Rules of Attraction. Dir. Roger Avary. 2002. DVD. A Kingsgate Production.