The Talented Mr. Damon

Movie: The Informant!

*** out of ****

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey

Running Time: 108 minutes

From its breezy 1960s musical score to its eccentric use of voice-over to its title’s unusual exclamatory finish, Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! is not your typical corporate-crime drama.

Adapted by Scott Z. Burns from the nonfiction book "The Informant" (notice the absent exclamation mark), it is a smart, if slight take on an audacious whistleblower, elevated by Matt Damon’s sharply comic performance.

Damon packs on the pasta (30 pounds of it), borrows a hairpiece and moustache from Ned Flanders and unleashes one of his finest and zaniest performances to date, of the intelligent (but not so smart) Mark Whitacre.

At the film’s start, Whitacre is a rising executive of the agri-business powerhouse Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). He is an Ivy League-graduate and biochemist, his uncompromised knowledgeable of corn’s business benefits making him rich enough to bring home the bread (another starch) for his family.

He’s doing this, however, by dealing in price-fixing with ADM and their other competitors. But when he is pressured to investigate a source of contamination, FBI agents arrive to probe Whitacre on his previous conversations with overseas rivals.

After much encouragement from his wife (Melanie Lynskey), he opens up to one of these agents, Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula, in a role a quantum leap more sophisticated than anything he’s done lately). Whitacre informs Shepard of his involvement in ADM’s price-fixing and that he wants to clear his slate by slicing the rungs off their corporate ladder.

Soon recruited as an informant to expose their illicit activities, using wires, tape recorders, hidden cameras and the like, Whitacre helps the FBI secure a case against ADM. Yet as the investigation seems like a home run for the Bureau, Whitacre has a scheme of his own. To spoil any more of this delightfully convoluted true story would disservice you, but it is at this midpoint where the film motions, using past Soderbergh titles, from an Erin Brockovich to an Ocean’s 11.

Whimsical is usually not the first word that comes to mind when you describe a film’s shady, crime-infused protagonist. That’s why Mark Whitacre is such a unique concoction; had the film not been a true story, it would be easy to pick apart the story’s ridiculous inconsistencies. But it’s not.

This intriguing tale is so much easier to accept because of Matt Damon’s excellent portrayal of the bipolar whistleblower. He is controlled lunacy, a very efficient executive on one hand, an airy daydreamer on the other who calls himself 0014 upon becoming an informer and engages us with random witicisms that he finds amusing (done via voice-over).

These deft comic touches could be one-note or irritating had a lesser actor been in Whitacre’s shoes; thankfully, Damon is endearing without being cute. The Informant! contains a strong performance, but it is not an exclamation point of Matt Damon’s career, just an indication that he is on his way to portraying more complex, intriguing characters.

The rest of the ensemble is particularly effective. Soderbergh employed many comic actors (such as Arrested Development’s Tony Hale) and stand-up performers (like Patton Oswalt) in heavier, dramatic roles. These curious casting choices remind us that while this may seem like a straight-up drama, this is a farce behind the curtains.

While Soderbergh is certainly a capable director, The Informant! is an entertaining but slight entry in his filmography. While usually a director fond of aesthetics, his latest has very little visual style.

The picture is grainy, the camera movement is mostly stagnant, and the sets are poorly lit (and on a few instances looked - quite obviously - like they were shot on a studio backlot).

Also, beware of the film’s poor marketing. It is advertised as a zany comedy, but the laughs are mostly sporadic. This is a drama, albeit with a few comedic touches and quirks. It’s only funny because it’s, well, true.

There is much amusement in The Informant!, but we buy it all thanks to a smart script and a shrewd but endearing performance by Matt Damon. Despite some directing tics, this is a refreshing (and unbelievably ridiculous!) addition to the corporate drama genre. Well, I guess that explains the unusual exclamation mark.