Friday
24Apr2009
Movie Review - 'The Informers'
Friday, April 24, 2009 at 1:15AM | The Informers
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Mickey Rourke  |
The new film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel The Informers might be the first movie in which you know more about the characters before it begins than after it ends. That's particularly ironic given the title. I felt decidedly uninformed by the whole thing.Featuring a confusing plot that somehow also manages to go nowhere, The Informers is strikingly reminiscent of Ellis' Less Than Zero, at least at its core: It's a meditation on life among young, petulant rich kids in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
The period touches are all there – the distinctive synth-pop soundtrack, the shame-inducing clothes, the silly hairstyles – and director Gregor Jordan manages to weave them into the surroundings with little effort. Unfortunately, the fact that this looks like it was made in 1983 is the only thing The Informers does right. It doesn't help that the many characters flung together are given as much consideration as what they're wearing.
It's an impossibly empty affair. There never exists one moment that connects these characters, never an illustration of why these stories in 80's L.A. are significant not just to each other but also to anyone unfortunate enough to see them unfold: College kids practice free love that's far from free in the early days of AIDS, a married couple (Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger) is undone by – gasp – infidelity, and a no-account drifter (Mickey Rourke) lines his pockets by selling kids into the white slave trade.
Reader Comments (1)
So basically, the movie stays true to the book. Which, to us Easton Ellis fans, is awesome ;-)