Review: THE INFORMANT!

Matt Damon (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) is hands down one of the most talented actors working today. If you had asked me ten years ago if I would say that, I would laugh instead of answer. However, over the past decade he has really proven himself and truly become not only a household name, but also a star. Director Steven Soderbergh (OCEAN'S ELEVEN) chose wisely when casting Damon as Archer Daniels Midland senior executive Mark Whitacre in THE INFORMANT!, because only he could pull off playing a completely self-diluted man with such charm.

THE INFORMANT is the loosely based true story of Whitacre’s two year gig as an FBI informant reporting on price fixing in the corn-product business. He spins entire stories about corporate bribery and blackmail, corruption, and embezzlement coming out of ADM. The most impressive part is that he lied about the whole thing—and people believed him. The film builds slowly as we watch Damon’s bumbling fool realize he’s caught red-faced in a lie and then convince whomever he’s talking to that something even more unbelievable is the truth. It’s fun watching him start with a very tiny lie and see it grow into a multimillion dollar scheme. By the end of the film, I started to believe Whitacre never spoke the truth. He lived in an imaginary world of his own making.

THE INFORMANT! was not a Soderbergh masterpiece by any stretch of the word, however it was enjoyable to watch Damon scramble around as Whitacre. The choice to film the entire movie in high fluorescent lighting was smart, because it captured the bleakness and uniformity of corporate America. And Damon’s subtle mannerisms, such as pulling on his toupee when he was questioned by the FBI about ADM price-fixing, were hilarious and well-crafted. In a time when watching corrupt corporate executives get their comeuppance generates great catharsis, THE INFORMANT! does not fail.