TIFF Movie Review: The Informant!

September 11, 2009 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News, Movie Reviews

The Informant Movie

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Informant! stars Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, an employee at Illinois-based ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), a company that produces food additives, among other things. Whitacre, a Ph.D. from an Ivy League school, works in biochemistry, but eventually climbs the corporate ladder and finds himself working behind a desk making a very comfortable living. That is until one day, he finds himself in a mess of trouble when the company’s lysine production is threatened by a virus in the bugs used to produce the lysine. It is Whitacre’s job to make the problem go away, lest the company continue to lose millions of dollars each and every month.

Mark informs his superiors that he has received an overseas telephone call from a competitor claiming that the virus has been intentionally introduced. They also claim to know the identity of the culprit and, in exchange for monetary compensation, they will divulge the information. Faced with extortion, the company brings in the FBI — who offer to wire Mark’s phone to record any further communications. And here’s where the plot thickens.

Mark then secretly goes to the FBI and informs them that ADM is involved in an international price fixing scheme. He’s worried that if the FBI learns of the price fixing from the phone calls, he’ll be the fall guy. He begins cooperating with the FBI to help bring down the responsible execs at ADM. And that’s just really the beginning of the story for Mark Whitacre, ADM and the FBI. Over the next few years, Mark works as an informant, wears a wire, helps builds the case against ADM, and gets caught in his own lie or two. (Or three or four.)

The Informant! marks Matt Damon’s first leading role since 2007 when he starred in The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean’s Thirteen — the latter of which was also directed by Steven Soderbergh. And, the movie gives a look at Matt Damon that we don’t usually see. First, the mustache, which is pretty hard to get past. (Although is does disappear for the last little bit of the movie.) Second, Damon put on a reported 20-30 lbs. to play the role of Whitacre. (He’s not exactly in Jason Bourne shape.) And finally, Damon plays the character as a little unhinged, as we learn later in the movie that Whitacre suffers from a bipolar disorder, which in retrospect was pretty damn obvious.

Like many other aspects of the movie, this disorder is played (very well I might add) for laughs. The problem, however, is that I found we never really got to know the real Mark Whitacre. How much was a lie and how much was the truth? Whitacre eventually served just under 9 years in prison for embezzling money from ADM while working with the FBI to bring the company down, but I felt the movie kinda sat on the fence as to whether he deserved such a harsh sentence.

In supporting roles, Scott Bakula was excellent as FBI agent Brian Shepard as was Melanie Lynskey who played Whitacre’s wife Ginger. Although I’ll admit that I’m still not entirely certain about her character. Are you really telling me that she really stood by her man after all the trouble he caused? Either she’s very loyal or not very bright. Or possibly she just enjoyed his six-figure salary a little too much. (Or possibly the millions of dollars he embezzled.)

I also enjoyed the look and feel of the movie. Although it takes place in the 1990s, I couldn’t help feel throughout that the movie looked more like something from the 70s, from the haircuts to the movie’s soundtrack to the font used to cut from scene to scene.

In the end, I’ll give The Informant the thumbs up. It is a fun story that is told very well, and very differently from what you’d expect from a story about corporate crime. The movie also deserves a look for the infectious performance of Matt Damon in the starring role. His character is such a loose cannon that you can’t really help but root for him. But if you’re looking for a more serious look at his character and the crimes committed by ADM, I’d probably look elsewhere. So there. (7.5 out of 10)