Review of The Informant! (2009) by Karl-Johan L — 29 Jan 2011

Soderbergh's THE INFORMANT! could be viewed as a companion piece to his other real-life whistleblower tale, ERIN BROCKOVICH, except that THE INFORMANT! take a story that is ripe for spoof, as the whistleblower in this movie isn't a heroic crusader like the titular character that won Julia Roberts an Oscar, as he is clearly insane.

Matt Damon is Mark Whitacre, a big-shot executive at Archer Daniels Midland who decides to inform the FBI about price fixing, the problem they don't realize with using him is that Whitacre is a crazy person.

He is a compulsive liar, he is greedy, he is vain, and he constructs a bizarro reality in his mind made up of a network of falsehoods and delusions that he seems to believe himself. The sixties spy-movie flavored score by Marvin Hamlisch juxtaposed with rather unexciting action seems to be the music ringing in Whitacre's toupeed head as he tries to bring down the "black hats" at ADM.

Damon's performance alone is strong enough for this film to stand on, as the tone of Soderbergh's Hollywood films (either directed or produced) has taken on an increasingly smug taste that seems to hurt his movies, but given the important Oscar-grubbing tone of most whistleblower sagas, it's fun to see the piss taken out of them by someone who has made one before.