Pete Koslow, a reformed criminal and former special operations soldier, is working undercover for crooked FBI handlers to infiltrate the Polish mob's drug trade in New York. In a final step toward freedom, Koslow must return to the one place he has fought so hard to leave, Bale Hill Prison, where his mission becomes a race against time when a drug deal goes wrong and threatens to identify him as a mole. On discovering one of his handlers, Montgomery, intends to let him and his family die in order to use their homicides as hard evidence to ensure convictions, Koslow must turn to Grens, a member of NYPD's Organized Crime Division to ensure his loved ones' safety as he looks for a way to escape when his cover eventually gets conveniently blown.
In September 2017, Aviron Pictures acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, while Warner Bros. handled British distribution rights to the film. It was released on July 31, 2020, in the United States, it was originally scheduled to be released on August 17, 2018, and to February 1, 2019, and to March 22, 2019, then delayed multiple times due to financial problems involving Aviron. The film’s first delay was until August 16, 2019, before being delayed again, to January 10, 2020, and to March 13, 2020.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Informer may prove a passable diversion for less demanding thriller fans, but most of its ingredients have been recycled from superior entries in the genre." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gives the film 3 out of 5 stars, and wrote: "It might have made better sense as an episodic drama on television but it is brash and watchable, its world reeking with cynicism and fear." Tim Robey of The Telegraph gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and wrote: "The Informer is one of the year's more pleasant genre surprises: a clenched fist of a crime thriller in the mode of The Departed or The Town, in which every element is just a notch smarter than you'd expect." Guy Lodge of Variety called it "a surprisingly well-oiled genre machine" and says it is a film "that knows its limits, and works tidily within them".
