Film Review - The Informant!
Matt Damon Stars in Steve Soderbergh's Manic Spy Film Parody
Sep 17, 2009
The Informant! paints a strange vision of movie villains. There are no giant doomsday devices to be launched -- these men divide and conquer the world with markers and easel boards. Instead of convening in an underground layer, they meet on a golf course in Hawaii. And -- in the end -- the hero that brings them down is nothing more than a criminal as well.
Certainly not the makings of a traditional spy flick, but that's the beauty of Soderbergh's latest effort. Working off the unlikely story of an Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) executive-turned-FBI informant, Soderbergh and Burns frame the (mostly) true story in the pantheon of 60s and 70s espionage cinema.
The result is worlds better than any sober-minded treatment of the material ever could have been.
Mark Whitacre -- The Quirkiest and Most Unlikely of Spies
There are very few explanations or motives to be extrapolated from the rambling inner-monologues of Mark "Corky" Whitacre (Matt Damon), an ADM biochemist responsible for busting open the FBI case on international price fixing on lysine, an essential amino acid in countless types of food. The film presents him as a man teetering between complete control and utter impulse, a tough nut to crack for any filmmaker.
In 1992, when the FBI comes in to ADM to investigate claims of possible sabotage at the Decatur, Illinois lysine plant, Whitacre inexplicably comes forth and reveals the firm's lysine price-fixing agreements with overseas competitors. Thus begins Whitacre's 2 1/2 year roller coaster ride as an FBI informant, full of wire-tapping, tape-recording and bold face lying.
Steve Soderbergh's Obsession With Technical Process Lightens Up
Though we get glimpses of Whitacre's family life and personal struggle with his self-inflated covert existence, The Informant! largely shies away from the emotional turmoil going on away from Whitacre's work place(s). Soderbergh announces his attentions up front, in the film's opening sequence of an unseen person (presumably Whitacre) setting up and testing a suitcase tape recorder.
Often derided as cold and clinical, Soderbergh does have an affinity for process, not unlike the master of French crime film, Jean-Pierre Melville. His fascination comes not with Whitacre the man so much as how Whitacre unravels and doubles over, spinning one lie after another until he simply runs out of steam. Why he does what he does can't really be known, and Soderbergh/Burns don't waste time guessing. Really, they just stand back with their audience to marvel at how absurd the whole matter is.
For many (though not this reviewer) Soderbergh's technical eye wasn't enough to make his epic Che Guevara films -- known collectively as Che -- work, but The Informant! is a different story. Because this time, whether it be Soderbergh or his screenwriter, Burns, there's a sick humor driving the whole train wreck at the center of the film.
The Informant! Frames White Collar Crime as Grand Farce
With Marvin Hamlisch's highly-referential score driving the proceedings, The Informant! paints corporate greed as the sick joke that it really is (and really, the timing for the film couldn't be any better considering the recent economic meltdown). The heroes and villains are all thieves at heart, and the overall ridiculousness of their actions serves up one laugh after another.
Damon gives an excellent performance, touching on the sickness, sadness, pettiness and hilarity of Whitacre. Occasionally, The Informant! paints Whitacre as a bit too much of a dolt, but more often than not, he's believable as a man who can be razor sharp one second and barely stumbling along in the next.
As the Unofficial Opener To Awards Season, The Informant! Opts For Fun Over Prestige
Admittedly, it's a terrible thing to talk awards at any time, let alone so early in September. But in a year so many have already been willing to write off as weak in terms of awards prospects, it's encouraging to see The Informant! have so much fun with form and content.
The film is a far cry from "Oscar bait" and probably too quirky and interesting (and early) to make much of an impact come awards season. Soderbergh has a real winner on his hands though, and one of his better films in recent memory.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
VERDICT: Damon is tops in Soderbergh's off-beat comic exploration of one of the biggest antitrust cases in US history. This is no dry history lesson though -- The Informant! may be the funniest film of the year thus far.
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