Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero (1987)

Directed by Marek Kanievska

Screenplay by Harley Peyton

Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis

Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey Jr, James Spader and Michael Bowen

I never do this, but I had a sleepless night where I woke up in the middle of night. I couldn't sleep so I decided to see Less Than Zero. I heard that the movie was mirroring RDJ's life when he was coked out of his mind. It was eerie to watch, but I was caught up in it.

This is a tale of three lifelong friends whose lives go in different directions six months after graduating from high school.The straight-laced one, Clay (McCarthy) returns to Beverly Hills by the urging of his model ex-girlfriend, Blair (Gertz). She wants him to come back to town because their friend, Julian (Downey, Jr.) is in deep trouble. Julian is in the throws of a deep cocaine addiction. He is in a five figure amount of debt from a sleazy drug dealer, Kip (Spader). The main mission is try to get Julian clean before its too late.

Being that it was middle of the night, I thought I was gonna fall asleep to this film. It's a film about rich, spoiled kids that have rich people problems. I misjudged the film. Reading more into the film, I heard the movie deviated from the book considerably. The book has a lot of characters that were melded together into the three main characters. I think this was good thing, because I think the viewer would not have cared about the characters if it was a faithful adaptation.

That was a biggest problem I had when I saw The Rules of Attraction.The characters were unlikable that I didn't care if they lived or died. Random shit happens in that movie that didn't make sense to me unless you read the 1987 novel. Less Than Zero the film was more effective that the drama focused on one character's actions effecting everyone else around them.

My Rating