The Rules of Attraction/Secretary

For those of you out there who consider yourselves more adventurous moviegoers, it’s not too late to seek out two more ambitious films currently in limited release: The Rules of Attraction and Secretary. The former was released on a fair amount of screens, but was critically savaged and pulled from most of those screens within the first two weeks. The latter has been creating buzz since its premiere at the Sundance film festival earlier this year and on through its release this past September. Despite these wildly different reactions from those in the know, I believe both films are worth a look.

Rules, based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, the film covers the permutations of sexual attraction between undergraduates at an exclusive New England liberal arts college. Sean (James Van Der Beek), the campus drug dealer, has fallen in with Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon), oblivious to the fact that she’s pining for Victor (Kip Perdue), who is traveling abroad for the semester. Meanwhile, Lauren’s ex, Paul (Ian Somerhalder), has developed a crush on Sean, while her roommate Lara (Jessica Biel) hones in on anyone who isn’t nailed down. And then there is the issue of who has been leaving those love notes in Sean’s mailbox.

Like the novel, there is no plot driving the film, just a series of random encounters at parties and in bedrooms, bumping up against each other with little to show for it except bruising, both physical and mental. The film culminates in an “End of the World Party” which signals a literal and metaphorical loss of innocence for much of the cast. Most films, such as this, lacking a concrete structure tend to meander, but there is just enough going on here to keep things interesting. Director Roger Avary, probably best known as co-writer of Pulp Fiction and director of Killing Zoe, keeps things interesting visually by alternating sequences that run backwards and forwards throughout the film, mirroring the human tendency to relive our most embarrassing and humiliating moments over and over in our heads. He also generous with his cast, adapting the script to give each actor a moment to shine. The most memorable involve Paul’s dinner with Dick (Russell Sams), a truly hilarious and sad moment he has to endure with both his mother and Dick’s (Faye Dunaway and Swoozie Kurtz), and Victor’s home videos of his stay in Europe, a mind-numbing display of excess and privilege gone awry.

The cast rewards his generosity by bringing the heat. Van Der Beek and Biel seem to relish the chance to break out of the WB mode for a couple of hours. The camera loves Sossamon, who has a real presence and infuses her character with heart and soul. Avary has also lined up a cavalcade of great supporting players from Eric Stoltz (as one of Lauren’s lecherous professors), and Clifton Collins, Jr. (as Sean’s pharmaceutical supplier), to the aforementioned Sams, Kurtz, and Dunaway. And whoever would have thought they would live to see Wonder Years star Fred Savage as a stoned junkie shooting heroin between his toes?

The main criticism I’ve heard about this film is there are no characters that keep your empathy. I totally disagree with that statement. There are several characters, beginning with Lauren and Paul, who earn our empathy simply because we identify that they are good people trapped in circumstances beyond their control. Not to spoil any surprises, but the viewer who cannot feel some compassion for what Lauren goes through during her introduction in the film has none to give, period. Second, must there be a link between empathy and likeability? Sure, Sean’s behavior to the people around him is deplorable and disgusting, but does that mean we should not have pity on him? He has been blissfully ignorant throughout the film, but by the time he has had his comeuppance, he is in a position where he deserves both our scorn and our pity. Why can’t we be satisfied that he has suffered for his awful behavior, but be empathetic since we know how that suffering, that loss of innocence, feels? I think Avary’s film does a great job at capturing the feeling of wanting to change who you are, but being unable to do so. My only hope for it is that it will be discovered on video and begin to receive some of the praise it deserves.

Tons of praise has met the release of Secretary, whose tagline sums up the plot of the film: “the story of a demanding boss and the woman who loves his demands.” On its surface, the plot resembles sort-core video porn: A mentally unstable woman, Lee (Maggie Gyllenhall), is released from an institution and gets a secretarial job for a lawyer, E. Edward Grey, (James Spader) who changes their employer/employee relationship into a sexual, sadomasochistic affair. However, that’s where the similarities to porn end. Lee has been treated for cutting herself, a condition grown out of her inability to cope with her parents’ marital problems or live up to the example set by her perfect older sister. She decides going to school and finding a job might be a solution. It’s then that she falls into Gray’s lap. At first, she’s desperate to please him out of sheer survival. But then, it becomes validation for her. The more mistakes she makes, the more attention he pays to her. And then things really start to get complicated.

Steven Shainberg, who directed from a script he adapted, along with Erin Cressida Wilson, from the short story by Mary Gaitskill, has fashioned a film that starts out strong, but loses some of its power towards the end. He solicits great performances out of Gyllenhaal, who is fearless in a role that demands it, and Spader, who seamlessly adds another tightly-wound asshole to his considerable cannon of roles. Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren, and Stephen McHattie also register as, respectively, Lee’s troubled love interest and her equally troubled parents. My problem with the film is that it cannot sustain itself based on the path that it has chosen to negotiate. Things get kinky, but not as much as they could have been. And when the direction of the plot changes slightly, it pads itself with about 15 minutes worth of needless stuff and don’t seem to fit in order to sustain itself to its conclusion.

In the end, it’s a minor quibble. You will not likely see a film this year that delves into sexual politics so completely. On its surface, it may be a story about a man and a woman whose relationship doesn’t fit into societal norms, but on a much different level, it seems like a reflection of the ways in which men and women struggle in relationships — the man who struggles against his inner self to express the love and emotion he has been taught by society at large to repress, and the woman who stays with him regardless of the circumstances, because she believe she can somehow change him. Whatever your take is on the film, Secretary is sure to provoke conversation and controversy. Make sure you’re not left out of the debate.

Submitted 09 Novemeber 02. Posted 12 November 02.