Mike has met with THE INFORMANT!, and here's the intel...
Soderbergh/Damon's ironic satire that playfully jabs fun at corporate culture and at the red-tape tying those who are trying to prosecute its less salubrious elements.
Steven Soderbergh, ever the unpredictable filmmaker, has this time drafted in Matt Damon for a bizarre comedic take on corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre's take-down of agri-industry conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) over its international price-fixing of lysine (an essential amino acid synthesised from grain). From The Informant's opening credits, Soderbergh sets out to play off the espionage thriller element against its comically ill-suited participants in the lysine business. Opening shots of surveillance equipment form montage shots reminiscent of Coppola classic The Converstion, as we are instantly primed for crime capering. 
The Informant bucks the trend by being a good movie with an exclamation mark in it's title! Then, suddenly, in pops Matt Damon's voice rambling about all sorts of inconsequential, corn-related musings before we're thrown into the ultra-90s world of big round hair cuts, bright ties and facial hair. This comic incongruity provides the groundwork on which most of the amiable elements of this film are based. But the premise is pushed much deeper, and when the FBI are called to ADM, ostensibly to investigate blackmail threats from a Japanese competitor, Whitacre reveals the company's price fixing activities and officially turns whilstleblower. From here on in, we are treated to a first class examination of corporate greed, the fluidity of reality, and man's constant need to justify his actions and portray himself as the hero of his own personal movie. The chief device in addressing these lofty themes in Whitacre's internal monologue, and it's complete lack of connection to the reality unfolding on screen. It's not just work related tangents that he indulges in either, walking into the office one day he goes off on a route that leads him to 'In Japan they have vending machines selling used girls panties. Little girl panties. That can't be right.' I'm not sure he could have said anything more bizarre at that point, and I was just one of many in the audience squawking with laughter. These offbeat observations are a constant reminder of the fantasy world inhabited by Whitacre, and a superb way of explaining how this man could engage in so many incompatible activities at a given time... and they're an excellent injection of comedy at the most unexpected moments! Meanwhile, Whitacre's almost childlike glee at his spy activities (look out for the moment when he shows off his 'custom made' recording kit to his gardener) and playing the white knight make it almost impossible to dislike this complicated and, ultimately, criminal character. It is often noted that one of the most important elements of a film is identification with the main character, and I'm not sure the critics have given Soderbergh and Damon sufficient credit for succeeding in doing with such a sensitive subject and complex back-drop. In particular, I suspect, it would have been far easier to play the 'mentally unstable' angle for sympathy rather than go the route they did. The supporting cast should not be sold short amidst my praise for the director and star either; Melanie Lynskey delivers a pitch-perfect performance as Mark's long-suffering and, occasionally, equally deluded wife whilst Scott Bakula was brilliantly cast as Special Agent Brian Shepard, the keen supporter of Mark Whitacre's case and constant foil to his zany antics. Overall The Informant is a great piece of ironic satire that playfully jabs fun at corporate culture and at the red-tape tying those who are trying to prosecute its less salubrious elements. But more than that, this film encompasses the kind of charming character study shown earlier by films such as Catch Me If You Can, character studies that take a genuinely intriguing personality and throw it onto the big screen for us all to marvel at. It's great fun, and worth every minute. The Informant opens in the U.K. this Friday.
The Informant bucks the trend by being a good movie with an exclamation mark in it's title! Then, suddenly, in pops Matt Damon's voice rambling about all sorts of inconsequential, corn-related musings before we're thrown into the ultra-90s world of big round hair cuts, bright ties and facial hair. This comic incongruity provides the groundwork on which most of the amiable elements of this film are based. But the premise is pushed much deeper, and when the FBI are called to ADM, ostensibly to investigate blackmail threats from a Japanese competitor, Whitacre reveals the company's price fixing activities and officially turns whilstleblower. From here on in, we are treated to a first class examination of corporate greed, the fluidity of reality, and man's constant need to justify his actions and portray himself as the hero of his own personal movie. The chief device in addressing these lofty themes in Whitacre's internal monologue, and it's complete lack of connection to the reality unfolding on screen. It's not just work related tangents that he indulges in either, walking into the office one day he goes off on a route that leads him to 'In Japan they have vending machines selling used girls panties. Little girl panties. That can't be right.' I'm not sure he could have said anything more bizarre at that point, and I was just one of many in the audience squawking with laughter. These offbeat observations are a constant reminder of the fantasy world inhabited by Whitacre, and a superb way of explaining how this man could engage in so many incompatible activities at a given time... and they're an excellent injection of comedy at the most unexpected moments! Meanwhile, Whitacre's almost childlike glee at his spy activities (look out for the moment when he shows off his 'custom made' recording kit to his gardener) and playing the white knight make it almost impossible to dislike this complicated and, ultimately, criminal character. It is often noted that one of the most important elements of a film is identification with the main character, and I'm not sure the critics have given Soderbergh and Damon sufficient credit for succeeding in doing with such a sensitive subject and complex back-drop. In particular, I suspect, it would have been far easier to play the 'mentally unstable' angle for sympathy rather than go the route they did. The supporting cast should not be sold short amidst my praise for the director and star either; Melanie Lynskey delivers a pitch-perfect performance as Mark's long-suffering and, occasionally, equally deluded wife whilst Scott Bakula was brilliantly cast as Special Agent Brian Shepard, the keen supporter of Mark Whitacre's case and constant foil to his zany antics. Overall The Informant is a great piece of ironic satire that playfully jabs fun at corporate culture and at the red-tape tying those who are trying to prosecute its less salubrious elements. But more than that, this film encompasses the kind of charming character study shown earlier by films such as Catch Me If You Can, character studies that take a genuinely intriguing personality and throw it onto the big screen for us all to marvel at. It's great fun, and worth every minute. The Informant opens in the U.K. this Friday.