Brett Easton Ellis' novels aren't always film friendly. Anyone who has read his work knows that what works for him on the printed page doesn't always translate to live action on the big screen so well, but director Roger Avary (he of Pulp Fiction fame) gets points for trying with his adaptation of Ellis' The Rules Of Attraction.

Like much of Ellis' work, the story here revolves around a bunch of disenfranchised youth and the varying degrees of worldly trouble that they find themselves in - and in this case, it all happens around a school called Camden College. Our central character is a sexist stoner named Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) who, aside from being the younger brother of one Patrick Bateman, spends his days smoking up and mistreating women. He's not a particularly likeable guy but this starts to change when he meets Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon) and falls fairly hard for her. Lauren is a bit of a mess herself, however, as she's still got a serious thing for her ex-boyfriend, Victor (Kip Pardue), who left her and is, to the best of her knowledge, hanging out somewhere in Europe doing his own thing. She's prone to making horrible decisions when it comes to the opposite sex and winds up having a series of misguided flings and one night stands and winds up getting used and abused like you wouldn't believe. Mixing it up with the rest of the cats is Paul (Ian Somerhalder), a young gay man who winds up crushing pretty hard on Sean, who much to Paul's dismay, isn't gay. Or at least he doesn't think he is, but then, didn't Paul at one point sleep with Lauren? Their lives interconnect and their mistakes all have consequences and before it's all said and done, we learn that none of them are quite what they seem.

A film dealing with immorality and filled with immoral characters, The Rules Of Attraction is fairly depraved stuff but it's not without merit or humor. Yes, it's true that often times we're laughing at the characters as opposed to with them, Ellis' satirical black humor is still rampant in the script and Avary deserves credit for not watering down the source material to pander to a mainstream audience. This is a strange movie, and often times an uncomfortable one, but there are moments where you'll find yourself wondering if the picture doesn't lose its point. Avary's direction is slick and stylish and his control of the film's pacing is admirable. He manages to get very strong performances out of not just his main players but the supporting cast as well (look for the likes of Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Clifton Collins Jr. and even Faye Dunaway in the film). Clever use of split screen and jumping back and forth through time help to hold our attention and ensure that the film is visually interesting, but when we forgo the style and come back to the substance we're left with what doesn't amount to a whole lot more than just a lot of college kids having sex and doing drugs because they don't seem to quite know what else to do with themselves.

There are moments where the story tries to dig deeper into the different psyches of the core characters, to get the audience to think along with the character about what they really want out of relationships, romantic or otherwise, but the film never quite gets its claws into us deeply enough to completely succeed. The emotional core of the film is slim at best, and the picture suffers for it.

That said, if you're a fan of Ellis' work, this is still a movie worth seeing. James Van Der Beek, playing a character about as far removed from Dawson as you can get, is very good in the part and plays a far better bastard than anyone probably ever expected from him. If the movie doesn't seem to really have much to say, at least those who relay its vacant message do so with admirable skill. This film is nothing like the sex comedy that it was originally marketed as, it's fairly dark stuff that deals with some fairly dramatic issues, so it's very likely that a lot of people were put off by its dark streak and pitch black humor, but that still doesn't give us much reason to connect with its characters. This might be how it is on a college campus and in many ways the film is probably very realistic - so it has that going for it, but that doesn't excuse its flaws. This is still a picture worth seeing, particularly for those who appreciate the source material and who don't need to 'like' the characters in a movie. By its very nature it isn't a picture that the masses are necessarily going to appreciate, not that that's a bad thing, but there's reason to understand why some would find the film's darkness unappealing.

The Rules Of Attraction is presented in a good AVC encoded 1.78.1 1080p high definition widescreen transfer that boasts strong colors and good black levels. There are certain shots in the film where the contrast has been boosted to the point where the picture becomes very oversaturated but this was intentional, the film has always looked this way. Detail isn't the best you'll ever see on Blu-ray but it's strong enough that you'll definitely notice an upgrade from the previous DVD release. Skin tones look good and quite natural and there aren't any problems with compression artifacts even if some of the darker scenes look just a bit murky. If the image quality isn't perfect, it's still pretty damn good.