Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Movie Review

Ensemble Cast Appears in New Film About 1980s Excess

Apr 23, 2009

Bret Easton Ellis's screenplay for The Informers provides the low points in the lives of an assortment of characters living in 1983 Los Angeles.

Lives of the rich, beautiful, and famous spin out of control because of drugs, promiscuity, violence, and other unsavory behavior in The Informers, a dreary selection of character sketches with no apparent heroes. That shortcoming proves to be the film’s biggest flaw; there’s no one in it with whom anyone would want to identify.

The story begins with a young man’s tragic death, although the event barely registers with his drugged-out friends, who seem far more concerned with their appearance and appetites than their interpersonal relationships. This jarring beginning sets the tone for future scenes in which viewers can hardly prepare themselves for the onslaught of inexplicable violence, anger, and ugliness evident in these characters.

The intertwining movers, shakers, and players in The Informers include a perverse rock star (Mel Raido), an insecure newscaster (Winona Ryder), an unfaithful studio executive (Billy Bob Thornton) and his unfaithful wife (Kim Basinger), a voyeuristic doorman (Brad Renfro), a narcissistic father (Chris Isaak), an amoral ex-con (Mickey Rourke), and lots of young beautiful blond bi-sexual over-indulgers with too much money and not enough responsibility. This lack of focus on any one person or story doesn’t allow the actors much time or space to fully develop their characters beyond a few blatant emotions and idiosyncratic actions.

The older generation obviously sets horrible examples for the younger generation. One of the central characters, Graham Sloan (Jon Foster), the handsome and directionless son of the studio executive, mourns his lack of moral compass. He pleads for someone to tell him what’s good and what’s bad, so he’ll be able to tell the difference. It never occurs to him to form his own conclusions based on his observations and belief system, and then act according to his conscience. His small circle of friends (played by Amber Heard and Austin Nichols) is even more lost than Graham.

The meandering plot loosely joins the disconnected stories, based on Bret Easton Ellis’s 1994 collection of short stories. Also the author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero, Ellis has a penchant for writing about morally challenged characters and their various addictions. Some of the stories, such as a dysfunctional father (Isaak) and his angry son (Lou Taylor Pucci) who travel to Hawaii, barely even connect to the other stories. This, like the other pieces in a sordid cinematic jigsaw puzzle, never quite comes together with the other parts to provide a full picture.

The mood of the film comes across very clearly, however. A vague hopelessness pervades all the characters drifting through The Informers. They react on their impulses – no matter how vile – with no thought to how their actions affect others or how these behaviors will impact their own personal futures. Despite the opulent settings used in the film, the gratuitous sex and violence, the wasted potential of young lives, and the constant reliance on chemicals as coping mechanisms make the viewer feel hopeless as well.

The copyright of the article Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Movie Review in Film Dramas Based on Books is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish Gregor Jordan's The Informers: Movie Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.