Matthew used to go out with Liz and can’t get over losing her, despite dishing out valuable advice in his ‘agony uncle’ radio show on just what to do in such a situation. He takes to driving by her apartment and hanging round outside the hair salon where she works. Worried by his obsessive behaviour, Liz turns to Garrett who, confusing the intimacy of their conversations with another kind of opening up, begins to fall in love with her. Meanwhile, Matthew runs into Liz’s best friend, Cory, in a bar. He tells her his relationship with Liz is over; Cory is lonely and invites Matthew back; Matthew decides this is a good way of getting back at Liz. Sure enough, it makes Liz jealous. Meanwhile, Garrett isn’t coping too well, either…

An old story, in other words. But DeGrazier puts a new spin on telling it. An edgy, sexy romantic drama set in territory more often occupied by stalker movies, Attraction deals, says DeGrazier, with “what happens when you’ve been intimate with somebody and then it stops and you can’t let go”.

When Matthew (Matthew Settle) takes up with Cory (Samantha Mathis, left), his best friend and boss Garrett (Tom Everett Scott) becomes disastrously involved with Matthew’s ex, Liz (Gretchen Mol, below).

“What happens in this movie is about one inch further than most of us would go,” adds executive producer Robin Schorr. “When a relationship ends prematurely and one person is left wanting, there’s a feeling of unfinished business. Something in human nature makes you want to get closure.”

In a way, it’s a film about the pursuit of happiness - something which, as everyone knows, has a habit of slipping further and further away the more it is pursued. DeGrazier wrote the screenplay shortly after completing his award-winning short, Mad Boy, drawing on his own experience - not just for Matthew but for all the other characters, too - but always pushing things just that little bit further.

“At different points I have been all of these people,” he admits. “Usually, what gets me to write is the desire to sit down and examine a moment - or moments - in my life so as to get some perspective. That’s how I got started on this.”

The finished screenplay found its way to Jon Krauss, who was then running development at Oliver Stone’s Illusion Entertainment, where he worked on U-Turn and Any Given Sunday. Krauss found he had the same affinity with the story’s foursome that had led DeGrazier to write it, and decided that this was the movie with which he wanted to launch his solo career as a producer.

“I literally left my job to back Russell on this project and produce this film,” he says. “I had so much faith in it. Along the way, a lot of people felt the same. Russell is able to inspire other people’s confidence in him.” Foremost among these was indie producer and distributor Trimark Pictures, which carved out a significant niche in the late nineties for edgy but potentially mainstream films like Eve’s Bayou and Skipped Parts. Trimark was also prepared to let DeGrazier to direct his own screenplay, even though it would mark his feature debut. “Russell is a very well-seasoned first-time director,” says Steven Pearl, who shares producing chores on Attraction with Krauss. “There is a soul to his connecting of the dots that you usually don’t see with a first-time director. It’s refreshing to watch.”

Garrett (Tom Everett Scott) and Liz (Gretchen Mol).