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Friday, April 24, 2009

Film / Film Reviews / News The Informers: Less than zero

Posted By on Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:02 PM

informersweb.jpg

By Matt Brunson

THE INFORMERS

DIRECTED BY Gregor Jordan

STARS Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger

I confess that I've never read any of the novels written by Bret Easton Ellis, but if the movies based on his output are in any way indicative of the quality of his books, then I imagine that Hell for me would consist of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin taking turns reading out loud from his works for all eternity.

1987's ragged Less Than Zero remains the best of his adaptations simply by virtue of compelling work by Robert Downey Jr. and James Spader, while 2000's torturous American Psycho at least manages to make a couple of salient points about misguided machismo. 2002's The Rules of Attraction, on the other hand, is completely unwatchable, a designation it now shares with this latest atrocity. The problem isn't that Ellis enjoys focusing all his attention on vacuous, detestable people. After all, cinema is full of great Feel-Bad Bummers about life's losers — it's hard, for example, to imagine a better representative of this field than Todd Solondz's Happiness, which made my 10 Best list for 1998. No, the problem with Ellis is that he makes his characters boring and their actions pointless, both unpardonable sins in any medium.

Set in 1983 (good research, guys, by playing Wang Chung's 1984 release "Dance Hall Days" in one scene), this follows the (mis)fortunes of various Los Angelenos whose paths keep crossing. William (Billy Bob Thornton) is a movie executive who has returned to his emotionally fragile wife (Kim Basinger) even though he still carries a torch for his newscaster mistress (Winona Ryder). Bryan Metro (Mel Raido) is a coked-up rock star who's constantly sleeping with jailbait (both male and female); his one adult tryst, with a sweet prostitute, ends with him punching her in the face. Peter (Mickey Rourke) is a career criminal who kidnaps a young boy off a suburban street and plans to sell him to the highest bidder (read: wealthiest sexual predator), much to the dismay of his cowardly nephew (the late Brad Renfro). Les Price (Chris Isaak) is a perpetually grinning father who takes his disgusted son (Lou Taylor Pucci) on vacation to Hawaii, hoping they can tag-team available young hotties. And William's son Graham (Jon Foster) engages in threesomes with his girlfriend Christie (Amber Heard) and best friend Martin (Austin Nichols), although he worries once Christie gets deathly ill in about the time it takes to tie one's shoes (it couldn't possibly have anything to do with that mysterious new disease being discussed on TV, could it?).

Director Gregor Jordan attempts to establish the time frame by occasionally showing 80s-era music videos in the background (e.g. Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance"), but overall, the picture rarely exudes the aura of a past period (unlike, say, Boogie Nights). The screenplay, by Nicholas Jarecki and Ellis himself, is equally clubfooted, filled with narcissistic twits who never say or do anything of consequence or interest. As for the actors, Thornton and Basinger appear as bored as their characters, while it's regretful to see Rourke, coming off The Wrestler (although this was reportedly filmed first), slipping back into the sort of mumbling, sleazy character type that killed off his career in the first place. The only creative acting comes from singer Isaak, who's actually quite good as the leering, lecherous father. Of all the cast members, he's the only one who seems to be having any fun with this thin material. Unfortunately, that's a privilege that won't be shared by anyone shelling out to witness this desultory disaster.

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