# The Rules of Attraction (film)

The Rules of Attraction is a 2002 film in which the incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College serve as a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
    Directed and written by Roger Avary, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis.

## Sean Bateman

* A great numb feeling washes over me as I let go of the past and look forward to the future. Pretend to be a vampire. I don't really need to pretend, because it's who I am, an emotional vampire. I've just come to expect it. Vampires are real. That I was born this way. That I feed off of other people's real emotions. Search for this night's prey. Who will it be?
* [voiceover, after getting high] I need to get some more pot. I'm running out. Then I need to get laid. Where the fuck was Lauren tonight? That Lara girl was kind of hot. I could bang her and feel good about it. But I'd rather have Lauren. I wonder why? It would just ruin my illusion of her purity. Whoa, is that really what I want? [pause] I need to get laid. [sniffs] Then I need to get more pot. I wonder if Lauren goes wild during sex. I wonder if she comes easily. Or at all. I won't go to a bed with a girl who doesn't. If I can't make a girl come, then why bother? It's like asking questions in a letter. Hm, I'm hungry.
* Since when does fucking somebody else mean that I'm not faithful to you? I only had sex with her because I'm in love with you.
* [reading a love letter, voice-over] Got you. You're mine now. For the rest of the day, week, month, year, life. Have you guessed who I am? Sometimes I think you have. Sometimes when you're standing in a crowd I feel those sultry, dark eyes of yours stop on me. Are you too afraid to come up to me and let me know how you feel? I want to moan and writhe with you and I want to go up to you and kiss your mouth and pull you to me and say "I love you I love you I love you" while stripping. I want you so bad it stings. I want to kill the ugly girls that you're always with. Do you really like those boring, naive, coy, calculating girls or is it just for sex? The seeds of love have taken hold, and if we won't burn together, I'll burn alone.
* [last line] I didn't know where I was going, some place unoccupied I hoped, at first I thought there were things about her I would never forget, But in the end all I could think about was-...

## Paul Denton

* [voiceover] I watched him with growing intensity as he refilled the pipe in the dark and smokey din of the room. He delicately fingered what looked like dried moss to me, and it struck me then that I liked Sean because he looked, well, slutty. A boy who'd been around. A boy who couldn't remember if he was Catholic or not.
* [voiceover] Three months later, the handsome dunce was having an affair with a friend of mine. Within a year he was a full-blown queen and telling people I couldn't get it up. Luck has nothing to do with anything.

## Other

* Victor Johnson: I no longer know who I am and I feel like the ghost of a total stranger.

## Dialogue

    Mimi: How's school?
    Richard: It sucks cock!
    Mimi: And what classes are you taking... Dick?
    Dick: Ummm, Gangbang 101, Freebase Tutorial, and Oral Sex Workshop.
    Lara: How do I look?
    Lauren: You look kind of skinny, actually.
    Lara: Skinny, really? Bulimic skinny or anorexic skinny?
    Lauren: What's the difference?
    Lara: Bulimic skinny passes for healthy, except your teeth rot. But my teeth aren't rotting, so...
    Lauren: So you look bulimic skinny.
    Lara: It's amazing how much weight you lose when you go off the Pill.
    Lauren: Which is nothing compared to the fifty pounds you gain when you get knocked up.
    Lauren: Abstinence is 100% safe, which is less of a percentage than...
    Lara: Whatever, I don't care, I don't major in math.
    Mimi: I leave you alone for five minutes, and you're drinking.
    Dick: Drunk. I'm drunk.
    Donald: Need I remind you we have somebody OD-ing back here?
    Paul: He's not OD-ing. He's a freshman. Freshmen don't OD.
    Lance: Can I interest you in a turn-on?
    Lauren: Um... no thanks.
    Lance: Well... don't mind if I do.
    Lauren: Are-are we gonna do it on the couch or...
    Lance: Do what?
    Lauren: You know, "it"...
    Lance: What? Fuck...? Oh, are you mad? I'm a married man. And I would lose my tenure...
    Lauren: But... aren't you coming onto me?
    Lance: Well... for a hummer, sure... I'm quite aware of your abilities, Ms. Hyde. And it certainly couldn't hurt your GPA. So... Shall we?
    Rupert: You want some coke?
    Sean: Um. Sure.
    Rupert: Then buy some of your own, bitch.
    Sean: [post-sex, to Lara, who is sobbing sadly] What's wrong? I told you I came.
    Lara: I was born in a Holiday Inn.
    Sean: [voiceover] Better that it's not Lauren. Note to self: Never 'shroom again. It only gets you into trouble.
    Sean: Lauren wait, Lauren... Hey, hey Lauren!
    Lauren: Oh my God!
    Sean: Can we talk?
    Lauren: NO!
    Sean: Lauren don't walk away. HEY! I really did try to kill myself... just before I faked it.
    Lauren: Wow Sean, it's over.
    Sean: No it's not!
    Lauren: Yeah it is. I'm in love with somebody else.
    Sean: Who?
    Lauren: My old boyfriend Victor. Plus it's none of your fucking business.
    Sean: Victor?
    Lauren: Yeah.
    Sean: What, then why the fuck did you write me those letters?
    Lauren: Wow. Deal with it Sean it's over, Rock and Roll.
    Sean: Lauren I want to know you.
    Lauren: What does that mean know me? Know me, nobody ever knows anybody else, ever! You will never know me.
    Mitchell: Are you fucking crazy?
    Sean: Define crazy.
    [Shrieks like a lunatic]
    Sean: No one ever ever knows anyone. You're not ever gonna know me.
    Paul: What the hell does that mean?
    Sean: It means, Paul, you're not ever gonna know me. Deal with it. Figure it out.
    Paul: Fuck you, Bateman! Fuck you Bateman!

## Taglines

* We all run on instinct.
* There Are No Rules
* Past Perfect. Present Tense. Future Uncertain.
* From the Corrupt Minds That Brought You 'Pulp Fiction' and 'American Psycho.'
* Rules Are Made to Be Broken

## Cast

* James Van Der Beek — Sean Bateman
* Shannyn Sossamon — Lauren Hynde
* Swoosie Kurtz — Mimi Jared
* Russell Sams - Richard 'Dick' Jared
* Ian Somerhalder - Paul Denton
* Jessica Biel - Lara Holleran
* Kate Bosworth - Kelly
* Kip Pardue - Victor Johnson
* Clifton Collins, Jr. - Rupert Guest
* Thomas Ian Nicholas - Mitchell Allen
* Faye Dunaway - Mrs. Eve Denton
* Eric Stoltz - Mr. Lance Lawson
* Fred Savage - Marc
* Theresa Wayman - "Food Service Girl"
* Jay Baruchel - Harry
* Joel Michaely - Raymond
* Clare Kramer - Candice
* Ron Jeremy Hyatt - the Piano Player

## External links

* The Rules of Attraction quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The Rules of Attraction at Mojo
* The Rules of Attraction at Rotten Tomatoes