Every bit of marketing for \Rules of Attraction"" makes it seem like an edgier, college-age ""Dawson's Creek."" Since ""Dawson"" star James Van Der Beek and ""7th Heaven"" star Jessica Biel deliver lead performances that make huge strides to separate them from teeny-bop hell, most would expect Lion's Gate (the film's distributor) to push this film for what it is: something more than just another film about wild, college antics.
The film's plot in itself is tautly presented. Director Roger Avary (""Killing Zoe,"" co-writer for ""Pulp Fiction"") presents one key character at a time. Each character, in an omniscient voice-over, walks through his or her night at the ""End of the World Party."" They explain what's going on but not how they got there'before the opening credits roll, there is a disturbing scene of Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon) being date-raped, bisexual Paul (Ian Somerhalder) failing to pick up a closeted gay freshman and drug-dealing Sean Bateman (Van Der Beek) prowling as the self-described ""emotional vampire"" that he is. After all this, the audience is left asking, ""Who are these people?!""
After this opening, Avary literally turns back time to the beginning of the college semester. Snow flies back into the air, leaves reattach themselves to the trees, and now the story unravels about how it all went wrong. A disturbing love triangle emerges; due to mysterious love letters he receives in his mailbox, Sean thinks that Lauren (an ex of Paul) is the writer and falls for her. Paul pines for Sean, mentally turning an agreement to share a couple beers into what he perceives as a date. Meanwhile, Lauren spends the movie saving herself for Victor while he studies abroad. As for Victor, he isn't seen until the last third of the movie. Using a short but hilarious montage of Victor's adventures around Europe, it becomes clear that Victor is no angel either.
All this unrequited lust leads to some darkly comedic interaction between the three, but also has dire consequences as well. When Lauren doesn't show up for a party, Sean instead goes home with her roommate, Lara (Biel). When Lauren walks in afterwards, it eliminates any chances Sean had with her. However, another more consequential result emerges.
Van Der Beek is, surprisingly, incredibly intense as Bateman. He digs to depths of anger, depravity, longing and apathy that were unexpected. Somerhalder plays his role well, if a little over the top, and Sossamon continues to merely serve the material. She does a serviceable job, never ruining a scene; however, when compared to Van Der Beek and Somerhalder, her mediocrity is plain to see. Smaller roles involving Eric Stoltz (a sleazy professor), Thomas Ian Nicholas (insecure boyfriend) and Fred Savage (incoherent drug addict) play out to various levels of success.
Ultimately, this film's pitch-black humor, disjointed sense of time and absolute lack of redeemable characters will make most people hate it. ""Rules"" is not a film for everyone; being based off the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, the content and structure won't sit well with all those ""Dawson"" fans. Likewise, the absolutely despicable characters will make most viewers feel depressed and thus dislike the film. However, dark films like this one can not and should not adhere to the standard warm-and-fuzzy-rule. These characters are not used to tell a story or make the audience feel good; ""Rules"" is about how bad and how alone we can be. And, after 112 minutes, we still aren't sure who these people really are.
The opening minutes of ""Igby Goes Down"" sets up a flashback account of two brothers, leading up to when they watch their mother gasp her last breath. Emerging from this amusingly dark story is proof that this movie deserves comparisons to J.D. Salinger's classic, ""The Catcher in the Rye."" Yet any attempt at describing ""Igby Goes Down"" will not do justice to this original, character-driven and witty film.
Kieran Culkin gives a breakthrough performance as Igby, a rebellious adolescent who is at risk of selfdestructing from seeing his father (Bill Pullman) become schizophrenic. After being expelled from every school he's attended, his detached, pill-popping mother (Susan Sarandon) ships him off to a Midwest military academy. Igby refuses to take after Oliver (Ryan Phillipe), his brother, who is an inquisitive preppie a student at Columbia.
Igby escapes the confines of the military school, flees to New York City and finds shelter in a loft where his weird and wealthy godfather (Jeff Goldblum) hoards Rachel (Amanda Peet), the woman with whom he is cheating on his wife. Igby is nothing short of excited when Rachel spontaneously seduces him, but he can see she is a heroin addict and barely hanging on to a dead-end life as a dancer.
On his own in New York, Igby befriends Sookie (Claire Danes), whose been-around-the-block attitude meshes well with Igby's uncompromising sarcasm; so well in fact, that the two end up going to bed together. During one of their often sophisticated exchanges of wit, Igby announces his plans to go to California and agrees to allow a demanding Sookie to join him. Sookie, however, ends up in a slightly forced and unnatural relationship with Igby's brother. Igby is on somewhat of a spiritual quest to find answers in his life, and while trying to keep from ""going down"" like his now institutionalized father, he is, at the same time, growing up.
Burr Steers, a former actor (""Pulp Fiction""), makes a convincing debut as screenwriter and director of ""Igby Goes Down."" With help from an all-star cast, each character is portrayed brilliantly, right down to the slightest yet hysterically fascinating eccentricities.
Culkin, however, is the luminary, making it easy to forget any preconceived comparisons to his older brother Macaulay. Showing no remorse as Igby, Culkin manages to be abrasively sardonic yet refreshingly charismatic, and couldn't have done it better.
Tucked between a variety of blockbusters with high budgets and thin plots, ""Igby Goes Down"" is a delightful coming-of-age tale, enchantingly dark, funny and thought-provoking all at the same time.
