Professionally executed, well, that's the least you can say about a Steven Soderbergh movie but, I felt, the whole thing had been done in a rush without real conviction, merely to showcase the talents of a friend, Matt Damon in this case. Terrific pace, involving and surprising. That's more I can say about most movies but The Informant with or without the exclamation mark left me kind of cold. I was far too aware of the intention. Matt Damon is a good actor but his acting is still too much of that, acting. I couldn't forget it was him, not for a moment. No matter how much extra pounds he had put on, the terrible hair do, the suits etc. It all felt like the dress rehearsal for something that wasn't quite there yet. I longed for Alec Guinness in that part. Visibly invisible. The story is so outrageous, with bumbling, sentimental FBI agents that couldn't see through this man until it was too late, is a pill hard to swallow and yet, we're told, the whole thing it's true. I suppose that the Marvin Hamlisch score was enough of a clue as to how to detect and read the tone of the movie but I was confused by it. I also must say I was never bored so, I guess that's a recommendation of sorts.
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don-agustine21 September 2009
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snorlaxmarkish1 December 2019+Fun little comedy that sheds light on an actual case +Matt Damon plays his role well as most of the film you can't tell if he's lying or not
-A little longer than I would've liked and had trouble holding my attention -
Ndirsch1130 September 2009Have you ever wanted to see a comedy about price fixing and corporate embezzlement? If so, "The Informant" might be just the film you're looking for. For some, however, "The Informant" might prove to be a crushing bore. I'm somewhere in between but I'll get to that later.
"The Informant" tells the real life story of Mark Whitacre, the highest ranked executive to ever turn whistleblower in U.S. history. It's based on the book of the same name published in 2000 by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. This is one of those instances where truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. A lot stranger. How does one make sense of a guy who worked his way up the ladder of success at Archer Daniels Midland in Decatur, Illinois, makes up a story about a Japanese saboteur working at the company, hooks up with the FBI to blow the whistle on price fixing that he and others had been involved in all around the world, defrauds nearly $10 million from ADM in the years that he was working undercover for the FBI, hopes to become CEO of ADM once the case is over with, makes up stories about physical abuse against the FBI agent he was working for, and then winds up spending more years in jail than the corporate criminals he helped to nab? The film does offer at least one explanation for Whitacre's strange behavior: bipolar disorder. I'm not sure if that's enough.
Mark Whitacre is portrayed by Matt Damon in another one of those roles that he seemed born to play. He's Hollywood's go-to actor for stories about men on the run from the law, spies, heists, or corporate swindling. It's a strange performance in a film filled with odd creative decisions. For example, the film contains an ongoing voice-over narration from Matt Damon as Whitacre that is just one stupid non sequitur after another. The narration has nothing to do with anything and only serves to highlight Whitacre's odd behavior. One particular piece of narration, as I recall, involves Whitacre discussing how he used to mispronounce the word centimeters. The humor in these monologues is very random, to say the least. Either you go for this sort of humor or you don't. I didn't but I must admit that many people in the theater that I saw it in were laughing. I got the sense that many of them would probably laugh at anything.
Another thing that bothered me about the film is the quirky and eccentric score. "The Informant" contains one of the most bizarre musical scores I've heard in recent cinema. The composer seemed to spare no expense to remind the audience that we were, indeed, watching a comedy. Violins, whistles, and horns are used throughout to the point where I was reminded of a T.V. variety show where the orchestra would provide the necessary comedic cues. Does it work in this film? I don't think so. In fact, I was so distracted by it to the point where I was taken out of the film completely. I had to fight to keep my interest in what was going on up on the screen. This underscores my general problem with "The Informant." It seemed to be trying too hard to be clever, quirky, and funny. Whenever the odd voice-over narration showed up or the music reared its head, it's as if the filmmakers were putting up a big sign that said, "look at how funny this is!" Satire must be handled right and this film's problem is with its tone. I was constantly taken out of the film instead of being engaged by it.
There's still a lot to recommend about "The Informant," however. The performances are mostly good (although Joel McHale seems oddly miscast in the role of an FBI agent), the story has some surprising twists and turns, and I did find myself laughing a bit towards the end at Whitacre's odd behavior. It's competently directed by Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic," "Ocean's Eleven") who is no stranger to these kinds of stories. But most of the film takes place in corporate boardrooms and hotels and the screenplay is very "talky." And because it's based on a true story, its dramatic potential is limited. I think this is the kind of story I would rather read a book about instead of seeing a movie on it. I don't think "The Informant" ultimately succeeds either at what it set out to do: get inside the head of Mark Whitacre. Who was this man really and why did he do the things he did? I never really got a satisfactory answer and the film's quirky demeanor kept me at an emotional distance. -
bob the moo21 February 2010Reading the opinions posted on this site it appears that a lot of viewers came to this film with the expectation of big laughs throughout and, when the film didn't delivered them, walked off in a huff moaning about the film failing to deliver. In fairness to them I suspect that their complaints may be valid based on trailers and marketing suggesting this would be the case – the exclamation point in the title probably didn't help either. So I'm glad then that I came to the film without a great deal of knowledge about what the film was trying to be other than it was a slightly comic version of a true case from the 1990's.
I am glad because this is what the film is – a comic take on a real situation where the decision to do so as a light comedy appears to have paid off. With Mark Whitacre as the main character, we follow him into the case and we immediately start to get the impression that this guy really doesn't have his head in the real world – like he doesn't understand the consequences of anything he says and does, which perhaps accounts for his rather cheerful outlook and easy personality. This is true but the full extent of his actions are unveiled nicely across the whole film – leaving me at times a little like the FBI lawyer during the presentation from ADM's attorney, mouth open not quite believing it.
It is not a hilarious movie by any means but the comic air makes it easy to enjoy and the story is engaging and entertaining. Soderbergh does slightly overdo the "wacky" feel to and he probably didn't need to have as many recognisable faces from comedy in small roles, but he does make it work. A big part of this reason is Matt Damon – showing that while he may be a Hollywood action star now, he is very capable as a character actor to. He does channel William H Macy from Fargo a little bit in how he will try and make pathetic lies to get himself out of trouble but I see this as a compliment because Macy is very good at that sort of character performance. Damon nails the cheerful self-delusion and his narration keeps us "on side" with him, making the comic tone work. The support cast is perhaps a bit too full of well-known faces but everyone is good, working again with the approach.
Overall The Informant! appears to be disliked mainly by those who expected something that marketing led them to believe this was. Coming to it on its own terms however this is an engaging story told with a comic air that works and makes the film as entertaining as it is interesting. Not hilarious and one could question if it is fair to handle Whitacre's story in a light manner, but it does work and I enjoyed it for what it was. -
ferguson-619 September 2009Greetings again from the darkness. Steven Soderbergh is a genius with a camera. Just admiring the shots, angles and movement of the camera in his films is worth the price of admission. Here we get a fact-based story from the book by Kurt Eichenwald showing us what happened when Mark Whitacre became one of the most famous corporate whistle-blowers of all time ... he exposed price-fixing at Archer Daniels Midland, the ag-giant.
Matt Damon takes this quasi-caricature and turns him into a comedy act along the lines of Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar. OK, I'll admit, there is more subtlety here than in that one. Still, the voice-overs by Damon's character provide the ramblings of a madman - an ADD, embezzling madman.
There is so much comedy here that it is easy to forget what heinous crimes the senior management of this company actually committed - and how arrogant to think they could get away with it. This again shows that many in the corporate world are the equals of even the most corrupt politicians. Power and Greed are all-consuming.
While, I don't know the details of the real story, it was interesting to watch Whitacre's interacting/playing with the FBI agents (Scott Bacula and Joel McHale). They want to believe him and are actually crushed when his game is exposed.
A real Soderbergh touch is the casting of both Smothers Brothers in unrelated roles. Very nice. It is very difficult for me to believe that someone as intelligent and shrewd as Whitacre could actually be so, well, goofy. But it does add an entertainment element to the film. I will say it is not at the level of far superior "The Insider" or even "Catch Me if You Can", but it is quite watchable. -
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
The true story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) who worked for a giant firm that produced lysine chemicals in products to be consumed by humans. Whitacre maintained a degree of honesty and integrity to his work, but when he uncovered evidence of price fixing with rival foreign companies, he turned undercover informant for the FBI...but, as events rolled on, it would appear he may have known a bit more about what was going on himself than he was letting on.
Playing like a lighter version of 1999's The Insider, Steven Soderbergh's dramatization of corporate corruption in the early 90s is amusingly on edge through-out, with Damon's constant muted voice-overs gently guiding us along this tale of principles and ethics clashing with corporate greed and deception. Damon is affable enough in the lead role (certainly hard to think of any actor who could have done it better) and the story is pretty relevant and dynamic. There's nothing about it that really makes it unforgettable or brilliant, but it's certainly worth a bit of your time. *** -
Kingslaay1 May 2019The Informant was quite an interesting film. It follows a habitual liar who deceives everyone, even himself. What is so key is he really feels he is telling the truth and the viewer cannot tell what's real and not. This is rather a tale of how lies compound over time and eventually blow up. Matt Damon's character ends up losing everything and giving up everything that seemed to be working. He could not push the stop button on his lies. This led to him ironically doing more time than the ones he help put behind bars.
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rmax30482321 August 2010Having missed the opening credits, I watched this story of good guy Mark Whitacre spilling the beans about Archer Daniel Midland's misdeeds to the FBI and thought, "Whoever's doing the lead looks a little like a pudgier Matt Damon." Of course it WAS Matt Damon who, I assume, put on some extra poundage to fit the role of the self-satisfied, optimistic, affable, bourgeois Midwesterner -- just as he starved himself for the role of the junkie in "Courage Under Fire." Putting on and taking off weight is an easy trick to pull for movie roles -- especially the putting on part. You win awards for such displays of commitment to your craft that involve eating a lot of pasta quattro fromaggio. My kind of role, but they kept giving me these Cary Grant parts.
I was also reminded of another incident. Doing research in a psychiatric clinic, the psychiatrist asked me to watch an interview through the one-way mirror, saying, "This guy's a psychopath." The patient was smooth throughout and when Howard asked him about his having forged three or four licenses to drive trucks, the guy was thoroughly convincing in his indignation: "They can't take away a man's way of making a living." (Damn RIGHT, they can't!) Damon plays the same manipulative character, an expert at self justification. He embezzles more than eleven millions dollars and it's everybody else's fault.
There's a narration of Matt Damon's thoughts as he contacts the FBI and tells them about the world of agribusiness and that Archer Daniel Midland is fixing the price of a cornstarch sequela or isomorph or something, the stuff that sweetens up your corn flakes and everything else..
The narration mostly reenforces what we see on the screen. He worries about the correct pronunciation of "Porsche." He may have a doctorate in biochemistry from a semi-fancy university but Whitacre is a well-meaning moron.
The price fixing is not why Damon contacted the FBI in the first place, though. He called in the bureau because he thought there might be someone sabotaging the chemical process with a virus, and he just mentions the price fixing in passing -- but it's at that datum that Scott Bakula's, the agent's, ears perk up, Darwinian points quivering.
The FBI warily asks Damon how far he will go to help them. What do they mean? Well . . . will he wear a wire and set up tiny cameras and so on? YOU BETCHA. They ask him why he's willing to do all this. After all, this will put his $350K job in jeopardy and alienate most of his friends if the case goes public. Damon comes on with this incredible comic-book routine about, hey, I just want to do the right thing because I think what these guys are doing is illegal and I want it stopped. My wife and two adopted kids love me. My parents were killed in a car crash and I was adopted by a rich family and, hey, that was a lucky break but this is the greatest country in the world! The two agents stare at him in disbelief.
Years pass, the investigation proceeds pari passu, and slowly, bit by bit, it's revealed that the Damon character isn't quite all there. He's been blabbing about his role as FBI agent all over the place; he's been forging documents to his advantage; he's been taking kickbacks in the millions of dollars. As his wife, Ginger, says, they have eleven expensive new cars and three have never even been used.
The story gets more twisted and, partly because of the editing, a little hard to follow at times, but I didn't mind that. We get the general picture okay. Mark Whitacre is a very bright guy -- but he CANNOT STOP LYING. He makes up lies that are easily exposed! That wealthy couple who adopted him as a child, for instance? A simple phone call to Whitacre's family reveals that they're his biological parents and they're not wealthy. Feeling betrayed when the FBI turn him and designate him a target, he fabricates an incident in which one of the agents hits him with a briefcase and he brings suit against the FBI.
If it sounds crazy, that's largely because it is. But the craziness is so extreme that it couldn't have been easily made up. (If it had been, it wouldn't fascinate the way it does.) One easily notes the influence of two earlier films: "Fargo" and "Shattered Glass," but that doesn't stop this movie from being the fine piece of work that it is.
Matt Damon and Brad Pitt are two actors of their generation that have shown genuine talent as well as appeal to gushing teen-aged naifs. And Scott Bakula is a marvel as the FBI agent handling the case -- his features are a mask of bemused skepticism. Melanie Lynskey has the part of Whitacre's wife Ginger and she fits the part like one of her husband's enzymes fits its substrate. She always appears perfectly made up, lipsticked, rouged, exquisitely accessorized, not a strand of her dark hair out of its ranks. This is the way well-to-do wives of high-echelon corporate people look and speak in Decatur, Illinois.
There's something else. This movie hasn't got a gun shot in it. There isn't a single automobile chase, no exploding fireball, no nudity, no simulated coitus, and no more foul words than a realistic presentation of the story calls for. It's a movie for adults. OMG! GR8. They are so few, so far between. A rare bird indeed, and I think I'll give it an extra star just for not having been dumbed down. -
This will be short. I read the book when it first came out in 2000, and recently watched the film, and now am rereading the book. The book is dry and difficult, with three and half pages of involved people listed at the very beginning. Who can keep track of all this? It is replete with the taped conversations of the involved, all of the everything that went on. And, it is tedious, if correct, in the extreme. Well, what the film did, and bless it, was to simplify all of this stuff and make it intelligible to us ordinary folks. And, it made a really nasty story somewhat funny, because we know within the first half hour or so that there is something hinky about this Whitacre character. Oh boy, is there, but I won't write a spoiler here. There's no reason to. Even in the book, the FBI guys were wondering about Whitacre. Why did he turn traitor to his own company? What did he have to gain? The film is extremely well done, an amazingly good adaptation of a book which would probably have you snoozing after fifteen minutes. Matt Damon really shows his stuff in this one, even developing a modest middle age belly to complete the image of the nerdy scientist.
Watch it, laugh at it, and remember: this is a true story about why most of the people in America are poor and how their losses are paying for the riches of companies which have decided that "the customer is the enemy". -
squaremilenews8 September 2018Layers, more layers, it goes on and on when corporate informer Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) starts blabbing to the FBI about dodgy shenanigans at his mid-west corn-producing employers. Who do we believe? Where are the truths? Things are not a simple as they may initially seem. This is a quirky production, y'know the type, kinda colourful in a cartoon postcard kind of way with an optimistic voiceover from our main character. It is not one of those heavy, heavy expose's investigating the workings of huge corporations with tense court scenes and the like. No, the touch is certainly kept light and the subject-matter all the more interesting because it focuses in on the individual rather than the faceless corporate edifice. Not laugh-out-loud despite being described as a comedy, but reasonably entertaining and worth checking out.
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january820 September 2009My problem with this movie is that Steven Soderbergh has tried to make a funny movie about a situation that isn't inherently funny. The discovery and dismantling of the Archer-Daniels-Midland price-fixing scandal is a compelling story, but it isn't funny. Nor is ADM executive/whistle-blower Mark Whitacre. He's bizarre, strange, frustrating, and totally (in the immortal words of Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoush) "out there," which makes for some funny moments, but he isn't funny.
Matt Damon does a terrific job as Whitacre, and Melanie Lynskey is believable and sympathetic as his wife, but there are gaps in the portrayal of their relationship, and the movie suffers for it. What, exactly, has he told her that's causing her to urge him to talk to the FBI? And was she always aware of his mental problems? If not, when did she start to realize the extent of his fabrications?
Also, what did the FBI agents really think about him? When did they realize what a loose cannon they had? How did they decide to deal with what they knew about him? The same questions could be asked about the lawyers he eventually hires.
I wish Mr. Soderbergh had given us a straighter and more complete story; I think it would have been a much better movie. -
Reel_starz20 September 2009At its core, The Informant! is, by no means, an inherently funny story. It involves international corporate conspiracies, corruption, deception and betrayal. Yet somehow, Steven Soderbergh manages to turn Kurt Eichenwald's book, which depicts the true story of former ADM employee Mark Whitacre in the manner of John Grisham's best legal thrillers, into a thoroughly entertaining, often very funny movie. This, of course, is aided by Matt Damon's brilliant, spot-on portrayal of the corporate executive-turned-FBI informant, as well as solid work by the supporting cast.
When I first read Eichenwald's book after learning about this movie, I was slightly skeptical. Economics and law are far from my forte. However, what I found was a story so ridiculous and told in such a compelling way that it was difficult to put the book down. Especially for a nonfiction story, the characters felt so well-developed and so three-dimensional that you cannot help but care immensely about them, despite their flaws. And then, I heard that Soderbergh planned to make the movie version into a dark comedy. Given some of the subject matter and material involved, I was worried that the film would turn into too much of a farce and would not give the real-life story and people the proper respect.
To my utter relief, I was wrong. While some of the darker elements have been left out and the film is undoubtedly lighter than its source material, Soderbergh stayed true to reality, keeping the events mostly accurate to what Eichenwald described in his book, and hence, to what really happened; in fact, on a side note, after seeing the movie, the real-life Mark Whitacre commented that the film was "very accurate", which is a bit of a surprise considering Soderbergh made the decision to not consult any of the people involved in the actual 1990s investigation.
Oddly enough, while this probably sounds contradictory to the opening statement of my review, much of the humor actually springs out of the events and dialogue depicted in the book, almost all of which took place in reality, rather than jokes or quips written by the screenwriter or improvised by the director or actors. There are so many hidden layers to the tale that, in retrospect, it is hard to not laugh or at least gap in wonder at how it all unfolded. Of course, that is not to say that Scott Z. Burns, who adapted Einchenwald's book for the screen, did not do any work. The screenplay does an admirable job of adhering to the true events with enough creativity, wit and originality to prevent the film from seeming like just a retread of everything Einchenwald accomplished in his narrative.
Also impressive is the cast. Naturally, as Mark Whitacre, Matt Damon stands out. Even though he had not met the person he was portraying before filming, he perfectly captures Whitacre's personality, mannerisms and attitude, making him seem larger-than-life but at the same time, completely and utterly human, while many other actors might have made him too much of a caricature. The supporting cast does a fine job as well and perhaps the most noteworthy of these actors are Scott Bakula as the benignly professional FBI agent Brian Shepard and Melanie Lynskey, who portrays Whitacre's devoted wife, Ginger, with a sort of Mid-western bubbliness.
In typical Steven Soderbergh mode, the director adds a quirky, unique tone to the movie. Although the whimsical, almost cartoonish score is sometimes a bit intrusive, this quaint style effectively mirrors the film's subtle and often ironic humor, and instead of being distracting, the cinematography, complete with the intense lighting and vibrant colors that make Soderbergh's films so distinctly his, helps emphasize the movie's off-beat wackiness. From the opening credits, viewers are immersed in the simple, charming vibe of small-town Illinois; this ambiance is benefited by the fact that Soderbergh chose to film in Decatur, the very town in which the real-life events occurred. Everything feels authentic, from the hairstyles to the ADM office and even the colorful array of ties sported by various cast members throughout the movie.
Furthermore, by using voice-over narration, Soderbergh effectively manages to enter the mind of Mark Whitacre, who is, to say the least, an extremely fascinating personality. Partly thanks to Matt Damon's nuanced performance, the audience learns to sympathize with - if not root for - Mark, regardless of his moral ambiguity and questionable decisions. Perhaps, more than anything else, this is because the movie never makes fun of him, only at his nearly unbelievable situation. Not once is he made out to be a completely villainous guy or a complete hero; he is merely human. -
DICK STEEL11 November 2009Liar Liar, Pants on Fire! I was once told that only the truth can set one free, then again there's this thing about truth which is an entire can of worms as well. Anyway, with lies come bigger lies to cover previous ones, and before you know it, unless you're one heck of a skilled liar, it just snowballs until it gets out of control, and you wonder just how you might just break this circle should you come clean. Sort of.
Which brings us to Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, where we follow the (mis)adventures of a company whistle blower, who acted in his own self, delusional interest in believing that confessing to the Feds his activity and what he intimately knows about his company's shenanigans in price-fixing, would absolve him of his guilt, and hey, fast track him to the CEO position as well, since he's wearing the white hat and with the good guys. But little does everyone know that Matt Damon's Mark Whitacre has some serious personal issues, which we gleefully laugh along with, until we realize that it is something that has potential to torpedo his credibility.
Matt Damon probably got everyone sit up and take notice with his action-hero persona in Jason Bourne in the Bourne trilogy of films, where his talk-less-kick-arse-more character had everyone heralding the era of shaky-camera-work in action films. Here, it seems that Soderbergh had plucked Damon from his Ocean's films, identifying that he can play low-key with aplomb, and does so as the lead protagonist in the film, without whom I believe this movie will fall flat.
Damon hides behind that thick moustache and paunch to bring out possibly one of his best roles in recent years highlighting some serious versatility so far unseen, punctuated by a quirky narrative complete with a very 80s feel in art direction. The film worked on a couple of levels, and while the trailer would like you to believe that Mark Whitacre was some kind of Johnny English or Maxwell Smart styled undercover spy buffoon, the character here is anything but and smarter than the trailer made it out to be. There's also no laugh out loud humour that it had suggested, but plenty of wry ones, thanks to some hilarious voiceovers reflecting Whitacre's thought process at that moment, that had topics ranging from anything under the sun, again tying in very closely to Whitacre's condition. One moment he's supposed to listen attentively to a plan, the next he's thinking aloud about cheap ties.
Alas the story did feel weighted as it dragged on for a wee bit too long, accentuating something which the audience would already know about by then, but just wanted to push it all a little further to the point of no return. Thanks to some excellent makeup, you'll get to see Damon like you've never seen him before, and that's basically what The Informant! is all about. A Matt Damon vehicle where he gets the chance to show that he's not just all action and no talk. Some insights into shady corporate deals with kickbacks, corruption and lack of corporate governance will appeal, and probably so would the stifling processes that the FBI, with Scott Bakula heading the cast, have to deal with a none too bright collaborator from within.
Not Soderbergh's best work, but one which adds gravitas to Matt Damon's filmography. -
itamarscomix23 September 2011Disappointing effort from Soderbergh, especially since, given the source material, it had a lot of potential. The story and script are solid - the plot twists and turns and often takes the viewer by surprise, and manages to slip in a statement about the incompetency of both government officials and business companies. And yet, it doesn't really hit a nerve, mainly because of hollow and dull directing. Damon does a decent job but his character - filled to the brim with quirks and personality traits - doesn't really have any actual personality, nor does any other character in the entire film. And stylistically it's a total mess. The title cards and goofy music are supposed to tell us that we're in a homage to 60's spy movies but mainly they just irritate, especially the terrible musical score that's plastered onto every scene in an effort to prove that, despite being everything but, The Informant is actually a comedy. It doesn't work. It's watchable but it's also a real waste, a good story fallen victim to poor storytelling.
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tedg17 October 2009I suppose I will always find something to like in a Soderbergh movie. The real joy is in never knowing just what that will be. Even in his most mainstream projects he is exploring some new skill. Here it is the notion of narration.
I'll have to see this a second time with a DVD stop button to be able to fully catalog all the various modes that our filmmaker skips seamlessly through. The main device he weaves these modes around is the spine of the untrusted narrator. We have all sorts of layers and nodes of deception with the only ones we can really trust being the guys usually are the bottom of the garbage bin: the massive greedy company.
We have this fellow being dishonest to everyone, including himself. We have no idea where the line is that he actually believes and we hear only from him. Some of the internal dialog is hypnotizing: we are lulled into accepting it because so much of it is appealingly funny. It is a great trick of misdirection, allowing us to associate with this slippery reality.
Folded into this is are the watchers, nominally the FBI, then various lawyers and the wife, but us of course, punctuated by a video at the end directly to us (with the FBI behind a mirror).
A second surprise awaited me beyond the Soderbergh stretching. Matt Damon finally does something impressive. He is truly something worth watching here. I never would have guessed. I never would have believed. In fact, this wouldn't have worked at all, this suspended belief within the story, if he had not so believably become the character.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching. -
The Informant is a good movie with a reasonable plot and a terrific comedic cast. The actors are really what makes this movie, it is star studded, filled with many great, hilarious comedians who add a lot of great ad libbed dialogue. However, even with all the comedy actors, Matt Damon still steals the show. He plays a character unlike anyone he's done before with Mark Whitacre, a clumsy FBI informant, a far shot away from the likes of Jason Bourne or Will Hunting.
I found the plot to be lackluster, it never really reeled me in, jumping from one character and plot point to another, but without ever taking the time to truly intrigue its audience. It also drags quite a bit, going on for about twenty minutes longer than it should have.
I felt Whitacre could have been more layered, considering the fact that we are following him for almost two hours. The dialogue and humour of the character is very one note, at times feeling like less of a joke for how out of place he is in the story, and more like poor writing.
Seeing Damon in such a polar opposite role from what we are used to is good fun, even if the movie was not as entertaining as it could have been. Funny and with a top notch cast, The Informant certainly overstays its welcome but it is worth the watch if you are looking for an enjoyable, easy to watch comedy, just do not go out of your way to see it.
The US government begin searching for a businessman after receiving what may be classified information from an informant.
Best Performance: Matt Damon -
The Informant! (2009)
Slightly comic, slightly silly, overtly serious movie (or taking itself seriously, maybe) that is fun but not especially funny or great. It's not terribly made or anything, but doesn't quite find a groove, the way comedies like this, without a lot of punch lines, require. The humor here, a kind of charcoal gray with glitter in it (not a black comedy at all) is about the odd ambiance behind seemingly ordinary reactions.
Maybe I was in a bad mood, but even the groovy, effective 1970s music, which I love, came off as too cool and trendy for its own good, especially since the movie was set in the 1990s. Likewise, the flashy
typeface used for captions now and then is more distracting than "fun."
The whole idea of an informant going slightly rogue, partly by not quite getting what's going on, is crazy enough to work. The stereotypes are easy to get, and easy to work off of. And more tragic twists as it goes lose their surface humor, of course, but the movie still keeps a glossy, glib, entertaining glide.
Matt Damon? He's his usual self, determined to be a good actor and succeeding, even at a kind of silly/serious part. I like him, and I like him here. The fact the plot is based on truth is interesting, but by luck (bad luck maybe) I just saw The Insider where the same idea (with Crowe as the Damon equivalent) was taken with utter seriousness, and more impressively. -
abcdefz119 September 2009On paper and in theory, this should fire on all cylinders. There are no slouches here -- Soderbergh included -- but the film doesn't really start to lift off until near the end. I think the problem is that Whiteacre's such an obvious liar (an something of a toady) that his stories never really gain much traction, and the result that was meant to be suspenseful and funny is much closer to boring, disappointing, and exasperating. There are flashes here and there where the film was genuinely funny, but those moments had more to do with an actor's delivery than what was set up on the page. I can hardly fault anyone for leaping into this feet first, though: the plan and vision would have looked like sure success.
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MovieZoo18 September 2009To let you know where I stand, I will preface this review with an admission that is not too Earthshaking - I am not a Soderbergh fan. Not that I hate the guy or even dislike him, I have just never been drawn to films he has directed. However, I loved one he helped produce - Michael Clayton. The Informant is no Michael Clayton. While Clayton was about all the people, The Informant was all about the seemingly innocent family man, Mark Whitacre.
Mark Whitacre, a hard working and dedicated family man, was caught up in a world of corporate greed so it was no doubt one would feel sorry for him as the story went on. For about half the movie, as I waited for the first opportunity to laugh at what was called a comedic crime/drama, I found myself getting anxious and bored. I knew we were supposed to laugh sometime(soon, I had hoped) and it was obvious there was a crime, but while I yawned extensively the end result was casually building up piece by piece. The funny parts exposed themselves slowly but not always appreciated. The funny parts became sad. Strangely, thats when I began to appreciate the movie. Corporate conspiracy was a primary focus of this movie, and probably kept this movie from becoming what it could have been.
You really can't go into this movie expecting huge laughs. The laughter is second to the nature of man in the corporate world. And that world keeps this movie from being a good comedy or crime/drama. Sad to say, this is only sightly better than acceptable.
6/10 - a nod to Damon, Scott Bakula and Joel McHale for their efforts -
kosmasp11 June 2010I think this might be Damons best performance since the Good Will Hunting movie. At least it felt to me like that. And I'm not saying that to put movies like Bourne or Oceans down, they are a lot of fun (on different levels), but performance wise he didn't have to stretch that many "muscles" (action wise on the other hand, he obviously had to, at least with the Bourne Trilogy).
The story is pretty simple and the anti "Hero" is quite ordinary. Which might make it less appealing to a large audience, but it wasn't aimed to crack the box office. Soderbergh captures a weird feeling in this movie, that leaves you with a weird taste at the end. Of course, you could argue, that the movie shows too little of Damons wife, maybe even too little of his employer. But as it is, it's a pretty solid and greatly edited work.
Even the voice over, which seems and is completely out of place, works really good in this movie. I guess even the Team America members would change their opinion of "Matt Damon" after watching this one. Give it a try, but don't expect laugh out loud comedy (not the ordinary kind that is). -
dpolwatte17 November 2019Not the best of Steven Sorderbergh's work but a different story.
Well executed but lacks precision, the script sometimes the gets carried away.
Overall - 3/5 -
st-shot30 September 2009Few first run films fail on every level like Steve Soderbergh's The Informant. The convoluted plot is without suspense and humorless, performances are lackluster, the cinematography is washed out and the game show, Hee Haw music score grating and annoying ten minutes into this crashing bore.
Matt Damon is Mark Whitarce, an agri business chemist who becomes an FBI informant in order to expose a price fixing scheme at his company. As he works with his handlers to blow the lid off the scheme it begins to become apparent he's not being upfront about his own misdeeds. As things begin to unravel so does the film.
In utilizing Whitarcre as a narrator Soderbergh cleverly allows the audience to think we are in the omniscient position of being his confidant. Whitacre who clearly exhibits a couple of acronym disorders seems trustworthy and noble to take on the role of the whistle blower. But he begins to get caught up in lies and half truths and what seems evident after he flunks a polygraph test takes the FBI nearly a decade ( the chronology revealed by Pepto Bismol pink titles done in a Dating Game font) to uncover.
The Informant is so drab and crass in story line and presentation it leads one to believe that Hollywood heavy hitter Soderbergh's intent is to make a statement about corporate corruption in The Heartland. Not only are they guilty of hypocrisy and greed but also bereft of style and personality. The characters led by Matt Damon's sleepwalking are passionless and of little depth. Much of the time they stand around with blank expressions waiting out the tedious scene stretching that helps drain the film of suspense. The lifeless cinematography is poorly lit an filled with sloppy composition. It's a long way from Vegas and Ocean and void of all the slickness exposes the limited reach of Soderbergh's abilities. In the hands of more accomplished and talented filmmakers such as the Coen brothers (see Fargo) or Alex Payne (see Citizen Ruth) the Informant's possibilities as a satiric comic suspense more than likely would have soared. But with Soderbergh at the helm this limp and lifeless story never gets beyond tepid. -
PWNYCNY24 September 2009Offbeat movie that, with limited success, tries to make light of some serious stuff involving corporate corruption at the highest managerial levels. What makes this even more significant is that the events dramatized in this movie are supposedly based on actual events which, if true, calls into question the reliability of witnesses in criminal investigations who themselves are criminals. Embezzlement and fraud are serious crimes, but when a person committing such serious crimes becomes a star witness for a full-blown government investigation targeting a major international corporation, then this cast a huge, dark shadow over the credibility of criminal investigation itself. This movie is also about to what lengths government officials are willing to believe such unsavory informants even as these informants continue to flagrantly break numerous laws. Matt Damon gives an excellent performance as the main character, Mark Whitacre, a man who on his own initiative feeds the government information while he continues to embezzle huge sums of money. The movie shows how the government almost becomes complicit in Whitacre's's criminal behavior and how it causes an incredible and irreparable amount of damage. Does being an informant absolve one of guilt for crimes committed? Watch the movie and find out.
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pinluh14 March 2019The story presented in "The Informant!" is captivating in the most direct sense but poor editing and lukewarm writing keep this film from being a classic. Damon brings a nuanced performance and is complimented by a great supporting cast but overall this movie has more valleys than peaks. Worth a watch but not a knockout.
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ashpeller5 October 2009What a major disappointment! When I heard Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh were getting together for a movie, I thought it would be fun, cute, smart and great to watch. Well, at least the visuals were OK. But it wasn't funny (other than one scene where Matt Damon fixes his toupee), or cute. I found the movie rambling, incoherent, and just a major disappointment...basically a bore. The acting was fine, but the characters were not the least bit sympathetic, or engaging. You didn't really care what happened to Damon's character. The only reason we stuck around to watch the end was we kept hoping something big would happen. It didn't. The movie flat lined early, and just doesn't recover. I certainly hope the end product isn't what the creative team were going after.
On the other hand, the visuals were fun to watch. I also liked the kitschy, old style music, and the old style titles.
I understand Matt Damon wants to stretch himself, and not just keep doing Jason Bourne characters, but he has to do better than this.