The Informant

This movie is by far the best of its kind. It is the most accurate description of the troubles in Northern Ireland i have seen. Unlike "Michael Collins" and other such movie's, The Informant did not idolise the I.R.A yet showed them for their true selves. Criminals, terrorists... But the movie didn't only focus on violence. It focus'd on a family, trying to get away from it all, trying to turn over a new leaf and start over. but to do so, the man of the family must "Inform" the R.U.C of names of the I.R.A members. In doing so he brings trouble on his family. Shame to his name, being a former I.R.A member, the lead of this movie really played his character to full potential.

I would have to rate this movie 9 out of 10.

we've seen this story before in different variations, however overall this isn't bad. Some good acting especially (and as usual ) by Dalton.One is able to identify easily with this version because it's the most recent, but still nothing can quite surpass the excellent 1935 film.All'n all, it's worth seeing.

I stumbled onto this on Showtime on a rainy night and expected little of it. To my surprise I was drawn into the plight of those trapped in the vicious stand-off of "The Troubles".

The movie conveys powerfully the oppressiveness of the weight of history that sustains the hatreds and the impossible dilemmas faced by people trying to navigate between the opposing forces.

The acting is generally excellent, particularly Maria Lennon as the wife torn between her husband and her loyalties. Anthony Brophy is superb as the trapped husband. The only weak link is Timothy Dalton who chews a bit too much of the scenery as the detective reeling in the unwilling informant.

The lengthy nude scene of Simone Bendix as Cary Elwes' lover is not "essential to the plot" but Simone is so stunning it would be churlish to complain.

Taut and effective. Give it a look.

Well I am in the middle of doing my thesis for my masters degree in history and my subject is the IRA. Now, this film, although it is quite good, beats around the stereotype picture I sometimes read about the English government would like to project as part of the criminalisation of the IRA. Hereby not defending any of the involved parts, I just find it sad to see, how narrowminded the irish basically are portrayed while the archtype of chivalry is of course english (and notice the stupid scotsman in the end of the movie). This could be something out of an english propaganda film!

If you look away from this, the movie is wellwritten and well played. there is a lot of human expressions of love and hate, and it all fits nicely together. I enjoyed the film, but thought that it just as well could have been a mobster movie...there were so many things that were wrong but still, it was nice... 5/10

This is arguably the best film there is about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Unlike films like Michael Collins, or In The Name of The Father, in this movie the IRA members are not shown as the romantic quasi-heroes they are thought to have been ages ago, they are shown as what they really are now: terrorists, capable of destroying the lives of not only their enemies, but also of many irish families who try to follow the normal course of their lives. The informant of the title is an ex-IRA assassin who makes a deal with the police, and gives the name of his employers. He and his family are then considered traitors of the "irish" cause, even though his wife, being more influenced by anti-brit propaganda, was against the so-called betrayal from the start. But she fails to escape the turmoil that follows: the poor girl is even raped by an IRA ganglord, as some kind of punishment for their betrayal, in a scene that certainly does away with the romanticism that can be expected from such a theme. This is certainly a view of the subject never shown in recent films about the Northern Ireland troubles. At the end of the day, unlike other similar films, there is no "moderate" faction of the IRA to solve things up, no Daniel Day-Lewis type guy to save the day, but only the feeling that things go on unsolved...