Ocean Drive
October 2002
For Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the 1987 novel The Rules of Attraction—as well as American Psycho and Less Than Zero, among other books—the film version of Attraction is a beyond welcome event, a far cry from the usual whines and whimpers of novelists tumbling in the vortex of movieland: “Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the project and never even visited the set, I can not wait until the goddamn thing is released. It’s nice to finally have a good movie made from one of my books, and my friends are no doubt tired of hearing me rave about this film: I’ve never felt this way before. More than with any of the other movies made from my books, Roger Avary, the writer and director—he also co-wrote Pulp Fiction—really nailed the adaptation. Unlike the literal-minded script I did years ago, he used a lot of filmic techniques, split screens and such, to capture the way that characters in the novella interpret events differently. Roger is also closer to my age, spirit and temperament, although the movie is harder-edged and more explicit than the book, colder and more ironic in a Kubrickian way.
“The cast is also really terrific: I remember how good Ian Somerhalder was in
Life as a House, and he’s great in this, too. These are all difficult roles,
characters who straddle the line between being likable and completely unlikable,
and the actors manage to garner the audience’s empathy. It’s not for
everybody—people will either love this movie or hate it—but it’s very good. But
I have no idea how it will do in the marketplace: Everything has converged in
favor of this project, but there are no rules in this business.” —Tom Austin