Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula & Melanie Lynskey
An entertaining comedy drama that balances intrigue and humour to great effect and features a highly enjoyable performance from Matt Damon.
Soderbergh has led an eclectic career in filmmaking, helming personal, artistic projects like Sex, Lies & Videotape, intriguing political dramas like Traffic and Erin Brokovich and lighter, Hollywood friendly films like Ocean’s Eleven. Soderbergh’s latest film is a step away from the more artistic features yet isn’t totally commercial despite the humorous tone and big name star. The Informant! is an intriguing and enjoyable film in part mocking the legal/corporate conspiracy films of which even Soderbergh has contributed too in the past whilst also allowing Soderbergh to engage in his usual experimentations with the film’s look and narrative structure.
Following an FBI investigation into a blackmailing incident at his employers in 1992, Mark Whitacre (Damon) takes the opportunity to blow the whistle of his company’s involvement in a scheme to fix the price of lysine with their competitors to the FBI. With the assistance of FBI Agent Shepard (Bakula) and the encouragement of his wife Ginger (Lynskey), Whitacre agrees to wear a wire and make tape recordings of his company’s business dealings to fix the prices of lysine, globally. What soon becomes evident to Shepard and to the FBI is that Whitacre is not providing them with the whole truth, is perhaps complicit in illegal activities himself and has deluded himself into believing he is some kind of hero like in the John Grisham and Michael Crichton novels he enjoys to read. Whitacre soon takes himself and those he works with further into a complex web of lies he has made himself.
Taking what might otherwise appear to be too dry or complex a story to make engaging, corporate price fixing, Soderbergh instead leaves the actual details of the scandal in the background to focus more on the more intriguing and humorous scandal of Whitacre and his actions to expose the scandal whilst hiding his own involvement and other wrong doings. That the events depicted in the film are based around actual events (though names are changed) adds to the bewilderment and amusement to be had at just how far Whitacre’s lies extend as well as his delusional sense of self worth in the midst of the proceedings. Whitacre is such a well developed character however, superbly performed by Damon, that despite his crimes and deceit you can’t help liking him a little too and Soberbergh’s decision to have Whitacre fade out of the events occurring before him to reflect on more mundane thoughts and distractions, as narrated by Damon, gives us plenty on insight into his character that those around him don’t suspect until it is too late. The Informant!, despite being based on events in 1990s, not only parodies corporate thrillers like The Firm or Soderbergh’s own Erin Brokovich but is also cheekily filmed by Soderbergh to also parody such films from the 1970s with a breezy, 1970s style musical score for dramatic effect and soft lighting that could easily place the film in that period if not for the actual period in which the events occur.
While there are other actors in The Informant!, the film is almost entirely a one man show with Damon putting on such an engaging performance as Whitacre that other actors barely leave an impression on the story, let alone the audience. Damon puts on a superb performance that plays the character, his actions and delusions so straight and earnestly that it makes the actual ridiculousness of those actions all the more amusing. The performance is much more than just a bad haircut and moustache though as Damon seems to relish the chance to immerse himself in the tics and mannerisms of his character after several serious straight roles in films like The Bourne Identity and its sequels. Scott Bakula puts in a likeable performance too as the rather gullible Agent Shepard who, while certainly a less developed character than Whitacre, provides a nice counterpoint to Whitacre’s grandstanding behaviour.
Overall, The Informant! is a fun twist on the corporate/legal conspiracy thriller, made all the more amusing thanks to a fantastic performance from Matt Damon and the knowledge that many of the events, as unbelievable as they might seem, are based on truth! While maybe a little too convoluted at times, The Informant! is still very enjoyable.
Rating: 4/5
