The Informers
Based on a collection of short stories by cult author Bret Easton Ellis, The Informers centres around a group of nihilistic twentysomethings living in an early eighties Los Angeles.

Based on a collection of short stories by cult author Bret Easton Ellis, The Informers centres around a group of nihilistic twentysomethings (Jon Foster, Amber Heard and the late Brad Renfro) living in an early eighties Los Angeles, posing in Wayfarers by day and engaging in drug and sex fuelled antics by night. In following their vacuous exploits, a multi-stranded web of characters emerge –  a substance-addled New Romantic rock star (Mel Raido), a prim newsreader (Winona Ryder), a criminal come child snatcher (Mickey Rourke) and a depressingly disconnected and mutually adulterous middle-aged couple (Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger) – spanning a spectrum from high class debauchery to downtown depravity.

Although Ellis’s writing style is difficult to translate to screen, many film versions have been critically and commercially successful – Less Than Zero although sadly hijacked with a misplaced anti-drug message holds a certain charm, Christian Bale’s brilliant Patrick Bateman appeared in a humourous version of American Psycho, and Rules of Attraction captured the non-linear style of the novel effectively. The success of these films lies in the various appropriations and adaptive techniques employed to transform them from Ellis’s superficially simple but truly complex prose, rather than an attempt to transcribe them more faithfully in a visual sense. However, with a screenplay promisingly co-written by Ellis with Nicholas Jarecki, The Informers seemed move towards a more direct cinematic rendering of one of Ellis’s creations. However, following the replacement of Jarecki as director by Gregor Jordon, the “absurdist, lighthearted, and expansive satire” promised by Ellis in pre-production has failed to emerge.

Instead, the film presents a complete misreading of the novel that fails to translate to the big screen. The interwoven stories that cling together through tenuous character links halt the continuity rather than serve to reveal a strongly driven narrative. An attention to authentic eighties regalia, pop culture, and soundtrack attracts a few laughs and captures the hedonistic resonance of the decade, but mostly falls flat due to the lack of overall plot. The decision to completely remove the character of Jamie (played by Brandon Routh of Superman Returns fame), and an important vampire subplot in post-production, takes a vital element of surrealism that perhaps would have acted as the film’s saving grace.

Sadly, the all-star cast does little to redeem the shortcomings of the film. Major players Thornton and Rourke lack sufficient screen time to shine and the younger cast members have the difficult job of portraying the uninspiring revellers with few interesting qualities; the shallow and superficial world they inhabit appears as just that, instead of cleverly undermining itself as would surely have been intended. Even with a hugely cut script and many dropped scenes, the film feels too long and arduous despite a couple of hard-hitting moments that punctuate the otherwise dreary and misguided plot.

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