Film Review: The Informers

Bret Easton Ellis books are never the happiest places to take yourself in the world, and even if the results have been decidedly hit and miss, The Informers is no exception. Sadly it also falls directly into the 'miss' category.

This time round Easton Ellis himself, along with Nicholas Jarecki tackled the screenplay themselves with the latter set to direct, but the producers had a change of mind, and Gregor Jordon (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly) was drafted in to take the directors chair, and also change the entire tone of the film and that move really shows throughout.

Based on Easton Ellis' collection of short that stories that he wrote before he hit the big time with Less Than Zero, The Informers is about the usual Ellis mix of wealthy, alienated characters and their stories and how they all cross over. These include rock stars, movie executives, disillusioned young people... this is pretty much how the book was, and for the most part this remains, although the part of the book that has vampires in it has been cut out of the final version of the film.

I try not to judge a film on how faithful an adaptation it has been, though. This is a film review not an adaptation review. And it's not like Easton Ellis reviews that are nothing like the book (Less Than Zero) are all terrible, I actually didn't mind that film.

The main problem with The Informers though is unforgivable considering the source material. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull. Whilst the book was blatantly a stop gap between novels, it still deserves much better treatment than this. Without Easton Ellis, this film lacks wit, charm or any likable characters at all (I know that can be said about the book, but there was something about his characters that didn't make them totally unlikable.)

The whole thing just drags on and on, just totally lost in translation. Which is a shame for a couple of reasons.

The cast is superb, a fantastic ensemble has been assembled. Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, Brad Renfro (in what was to be his final film), Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Rhys Ifans, Chris Issak and Amber Heard (who spends half of her screen time topless!) amongst others. But even they can't draw much interest (and were apparently as dismayed as the writers with what happened to the film.)

This could have been fantastic if Easton Ellis and Jarecki were just left alone to do the film their way. I know we got a great version of American Psycho, and a pretty faithful adaptation of The Rules Of Attraction but it seems like a missed opportunity.

I'd love to see Ellis do one of his own books himself. Glamorama would probably be too much for studios, and Lunar Park would be good, but was such a good book I'd hate it if there was even the slightest chance of it being ruined.

The Informers is worth a watch for Ellis fans to see what went wrong, and to be honest even when he and Jarecki had the helm, I don't think it was such a good idea. I mean, short stories that have a few recurring characters in flesh out into an entire film. Not great. If you're not a fan, don't bother.

*1/2
Great cast aside, this is an utter mess. You can see a few traces of Ellis in it, but the rest is just boring drivel.