The Informer (15)**

Dir: Andrea Di Stefano

With: Rosamund Pike, Joel Kinnaman, Clive Owen

Runtime: 113 minutes

THE misunderstood guy struggling to do the right thing though the odds and the authorities are stacked against him. Andrea Di Stefano’s actioner wheels that old idea out for another spin round the block to underwhelming effect.

Joel Kinnaman plays Pete Koslow, former soldier turned criminal turned informer for the FBI. Working with his handler (Rosamund Pike) and her boss (Clive Owen), Koslow is a central part of an operation to capture a drugs kingpin. But best laid plans and all that mean there is a hasty rethink of the strategy, with the outcome decidedly not in Koslow’s favour. Kinnaman has long been deserving of a lead part and he does his best here to hold the film together. But the convoluted story takes an age to get going and we are never quite sure whether to root for the hero or hope he gets caught. Someone clearly wants to set another Bourne-style franchise running, but I wouldn’t bet on it.