Trimark Pictures presents

Attraction (2000)

"How long have you been sleeping out in front of my place in your car?"- Liz (Gretchen Mol)

Stars: Matthew Settle, Samantha Mathis, Gretchen Mol, Tom Everett Scott
Director: Russell DeGrazier

MPAA Rating: R for language and strong sexuality
Run Time: 01h:35m:20s
Release Date: 2001-06-12
Genre: suspense thriller

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
C+	C+	B	C	B-

 

DVD Review

Matthew (Matthew Settle) has serious emotional problems. He spends his nights in his car outside of his ex-girlfriend's house and often follows her during the daytime. At one point not long ago, Liz (Gretchen Mol) and Matthew truly loved each other, but now it's over and he can't seem to move on. But is it that simple? Instead of flat-out rejecting him, Liz drops hints with sly facial expressions and bodily movements that complicate matters considerably. Yet this hardly warrants him to stalk her apartment and demand entry. In a fit of rage, Matthew violently breaks a neighbor's window and exits in a destructive haze. It appears that this story is heading to a bloody showdown, but then it slows and converts to a more introspective, personal tone.

Attraction follows the paths of four troubled characters trying to discover love and some type of understanding about life. Drinking away his sorrows at a local club, Matthew meets Corey (Samantha Mathis)óa friend of Liz'sóand they quickly strike up a relationship that may have a bright future. Unfortunately, his past obsession with Liz casts a dark shadow over any happiness between them. Lurking around the edges is Garrett (Tom Everett Scott), an eerily friendly guy who takes on the guise of trying to protect Liz from Matthew's rage. However, his persistence may also cross the line and cause more damage than good. Although Liz loves the attention, she lacks strong feelings for Garrett, who remains fairly dull and simplistic. Her deception appears fairly harmless, but it may have larger ramifications when the tumultuous lives of these four characters collide brutally in the final act.

First-time director Russell DeGrazier creates a claustrophobic atmosphere for this film that places the characters into closed, insecure places. Matthew spends much of his time driving around within the tight confines of his car and types his articles within a cold, dark room. Characters are constantly speaking through closed doors that block them from having true conversations with other people. Instead, they're glaring through peepholes, screaming through walls, and pleading for their emotional lives. The camera often places one character in the middle and pushes another to the outside of the frame. Supporting players are seldom seen at all within scenes because they take away from the focus on the main characters. It's a fairly basic editing style that's effective in keeping the audience unsettled and off-guard. Unfortunately, it also keeps us alienated and hinders our connections with the people on screen. The events aren't dull, but they lack the emotional context necessary to really draw us into the story.

The title Attraction brings to mind a poorly made, low-budget movie that would play during late-night hours on cable television. While this film does have a few steamy scenes, the low-key tone keeps the events fairly tame, and the focus falls on the emotional mindset of each character. In fact, Corey is the only person who appears to truly care for the feelings of anyone else. This lack of likable qualities makes it even more difficult to discern much entertainment value. Matthew is the protagonist of the story, but his supposed attractiveness to these women fails to come across on screen. He possesses little caring for himself or other people, and it's not understandable because little background is revealed about his life.

The central actors all possess talents that could have led to a compelling film. Sadly, their skills are wasted due to a lackluster script that is too mysterious for its own good. In an attempt to throw off viewers, DeGrazier keeps us isolated from their thoughts in a story that needs to deliver a greater understanding of specific actions. Samantha Mathis (Pump Up the Volume, The Thing Called Love) provides the best performance and brings humanity to Corey, a confused, yet strong character who actually has an idea about where her life is going. Gretchen Mol (Rounders, The 13th Floor) looks dazzling as always, but her role is too thin to allow for much depth in her acting. A major disappointment comes from Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!) who generally does a nice job but falls flat here. Matthew Settle (U-571) works decently in the lead role, but once again he suffers from an under-written character. This problem dominates this film, which provides some intriguing moments but falls short of creating a complete, interesting story.

Rating for Style: C+
Rating for Substance: C+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: A majority of the events in this film take place during the night hours, and this 1.85:1 widescreen transfer presents these scenes with a limited amount of grain or defects. However, there's very little in terms of exceptional images on this picture that stand out as memorable. The fairly simple and deliberate visual style limits the effect of this transfer on the finished product. Also, this Trimark release suffers from its nonanamorphic format in terms of its overall picture quality.

Image Transfer Grade: B
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: During the louder, tense moments of Attraction, this 5.1-channel Dolby Digital transfer works nicely and carries a good deal of power. However, the sound balance on this track is terrible and forced me to change the volume often; adjusting it up and down. The dialogue is extremely quiet in the front speakers, while the sound effects blare throughout the entire sound field. Although the audio is clear, this poor balance hindered my enjoyment of the film and warrants the lesser rating.

Audio Transfer Grade: C 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Scene Access with 24 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English, French, Spanish with remote access
1 Feature/Episode commentary by Writer/Director Russell DeGrazier, Editor Glen Garland, Director of Photography Michael Price
Packaging: Amaray
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extra Extras:

1. Cast and crew interviews
2. Character interviews
3. Music Video for Beautiful by Joydrop

Extras Review: Attraction contains a decent collection of supplements that should please fans of the film. The major extra is a mediocre feature-length commentary from writer/director Russel DeGrazier, editor Glen Garland, and director of photography Micahel Price. All three men offer some valuable insights to the story, with the most coming from DeGrazier. There are some significant pauses throughout the track, and certain parts are scene-specific. One interesting item concerned an odd diner scene early in the film. While viewing it the first time, I found it odd that Gretchen Mol's facial expressions kept changing for no apparent reason. During the commentary, DeGrazier explains that they shot the same scene with differing tones, then edited them together into one product. While the final version is pretty poor, this is an interesting item.

Another fairly unique addition is a series of interviews with the actors completely in character talking about the events in the story. This makes everything appear more natural and realistic, and explains certain actions by the characters during the film. In one nice contradiction, Corey says that Liz isn't always honest with people but doesn't mean any harm. On the flip side, Liz calls herself "honest with people" during her interview. Segments from Matthew's conversation appear in the film, and it seems that DeGrazier planned to use the others too, but they were left out of the final version.

The other major section includes interviews with DeGrazier, Mol, Samantha Mathis, and Matthew Settle. The entire collection runs for about eight minutes, and briefly covers each actor's reasons for interest in the story. There's nothing amazing offered here, but they do discuss several key concepts like "obsession."

This disc also contains the music video for Beautiful by Joydrop, which comes in a full-screen image with 2.0-channel stereo. The lead singer has a pretty voice during the verses, but the overall song is fairly unimpressive. This video does feature some crazy imagery, especially during the heavier chorus.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

Attraction contains several surprising moments of insight into the nature of human relationships and the dysfunctional side of them. However, the overall package fails to deliver and reverts towards several rather dull conflicts. The actors do the best they can with the limited script, but they can't totally save this film. It's a good start for first-time director Russell DeGrazier, and hopefully it will lead to better results in the future.

Dan Heaton 2001-07-20