Edgy director pushes boundaries

By Jane Muhlstein

When writer/director Roger Avary first read the 1988 Bret Easton Ellis novel "The Rules of Attraction," he felt a strong connection with it. He "woke up one morning and thought, 'I've got to write this and get it out of my head.'"

Years later, that urge to get it out has developed into what could become one of the most controversial films of the year.

"What I wanted to do was take the gamut of emotion one might feel in a college semester and condense it into a 120-minute movie," Avary says of the film, which follows the relationships of a group of students at a New England liberal arts school. But this movie is not a traditional coming-of-age story. "It's designed to sucker punch anybody, including somebody who' s prepared for it," comments Avary.

Avary compares the tone of "Rules" to his young adult life. In college, "I was all over the map emotionally because I had never been feeling as much as I had right then," he says. He notes that he bases parts of the movie on his own college experiences, which happen to parallel those of the book's author.

By getting away from the 1980s setting, Avary's goal was to create a film that will be relevant for people of many generations. He says that he wants "Rules" to "last the test of time and not just speak to my generation when I was in college because most people share, cyclically, those emotions when they're in that period of their life." The only complaint the book's author had with the film is that he still feels it should have been set in the 1980s as well.

Ellis, whose books "Less Than Zero" and "American Psycho" were also made into films, has called this the truest adaptation of his work. He has even gone so far as to call Avary's film "better than the book."

But Avary is hesitant to accept such high praise. Ellis's work is "so innovative stylistically and his literary devices are so rich ... I just tried to write the spirit of his book and tried to make cinematic devices out of his literary devices," he says.

Unfortunately, making "Rules" has not been as easy as Avary's relationship with the author. He has had numerous problems with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) which controls the movie rating system. The film was originally given an NC-17 rating. Avary had to edit it several times and persistently argue with the MPAA to bring the rating down to R.

Editing out nudity and graphic drug use would have been one thing, but Avary says the MPAA was "concerned more about the tone and morality of this movie and those are things you cannot edit out."

Although he was initially resistant to changing his film, he now believes the changes were for the best. He has found that, even with the cuts, many people are still getting as much explicit content as they can take in without being turned off of the movie. He is also more understanding of th MPAA's urge to slap "Rules" with an NC-17 rating, given its graphic substance. "As a filmmaker, you hope to get all audiences, but at the same time there is probably a limit to who should see this movie," he says.

The content of "Rules" is so shocking in part because of the young cast that includes actors from less worldly teen movies and two icons from teen dramas on the WB.

Most notable is the amoral lead, played by James Van Der Beek of "Dawson's Creek." At first, Avary had doubts about casting an actor so well known from a show that is relatively innocent and known for drawing considerably young audiences. He was concerned that the audience would not be able to disengage from Van Der Beek's television persona.

However, after meeting with Van Der Beek and realizing that he was capable of portraying a cold, cynical character, Avary changed his mind.

"The reason I had written the film was to drive a stake in the heart of the teen film genre and when I cast James I decided to just open the floodgates," he says. He believes that "as often as possible, you should try to use tricks in casting and enhance your story a little bit." The casting of Van Der Beek challenges the audiences' perceptions from the beginning.

Although Van Der Beek and the college setting may draw young audiences, Avary believes that "Rules" will speak to all age groups.

"It works for younger audiences," he says. "It also works for an older audience who has been jaded by the mundane events of life."