Movie Review - 'The Informant!'

The Informant! Starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, and Melanie Lynskey Directed by Stephen Soderbergh Rated R

Mark Whitacre had a selective guilty conscience. The biotech executive a Archer Daniels Midland, then one of the biggest food additive companies in the world, couldn't let his company and its competition around the world continue gouging the unsuspecting consumer with their unfettered price fixing. The solution was to tape conversations for and work directly with the FBI in order to catch ADM red-handed. Of course, Whitacre didn't feel nearly as guilty about some criminal activities in which he engaged on the side. In The Informant!, director Steven Soderbergh recounts a story so strange it has to be true. And, well, it is. But Soderbergh's stylistic approach adds some artifice. For example, probably 50% of the speaking parts go to recognizable comedians, though not one of them ever says anything that's supposed to be funny. And while the events take place in the early- to mid-1990s, the look of The Informant! is more reminiscent of the Carter administration, right down to the film's original score by Marvin Hamlisch (The Sting, Ice Castles). The effect works, however, through and through. And in part because of those decisions, it's somewhat surprising that this is one of Soderbergh's most consistent films, never dragging, never veering off into some direction it shouldn't be going. When Whitacre (Matt Damon) learned that ADM was engaged in price fixing, he told the FBI - embodied most often by Scott Bakula - exactly what he know. His company, which in 2008 reported gross profits of an astonishing $70 billion, would establish higher rates for lycene than the reasonable market price, or would agree to higher prices in conjunction with companies in Japan and Europe. So what? Who cares is the cost of a corn by-product skyrockets? Well, lysine is found in a ton of foods, from beans to corn to meat to fish to eggs. So that means almost everything else will go up in price, directly affecting consumers. Whitacre became addicted to his clandestine operation, and eventually had a couple hundred hours of tape incriminating his own company in the price fixing case. But he was also deluded by his own actions. Whitacre sincerely thought the company would appreciate his work for the government and promote him from the youngest vice president in ADM history to the top of the ladder. Someone is in for a rude awakening. There is more to Mark Whitacre, and Matt Damon does an unbelievable job conveying all of it. Comedy is hard enough, but there's a scene where the mood shifts suddenly and almost irreversibly for Whitacre. You don't know it ahead of time but the clues are all there in Scott Burns' terrific script, which incorporates a rather bizarre but always humorous stream of consciousness narration. Damon plays Whitacre to the hilt and when the mood does change, suddenly you find yourself crashing as hard as the character. Some comedies slow down for audiences to make sure all the jokes are properly milked. Some films about comeuppance lay it on too thick just so justice is served. The Informant! effortlessly manages to entertain you at every turn while keeping a complicated story moving forward. It's the exacting kind of chemistry a guy like Mark Whitacre would really appreciate.

Comments

[SEAN]

Good review Colin, well done...

I enjoyed it I thought the acting was better than the directing but thats just me...

I also however thought it was slow at times and took its time to develop and the comedy as in laughs weren't as many as the trailer made it out to be....

Matt Damon pulled it off, great turn for his career...