The new Matt Damon movie (directed by Steven Soderbergh) is a brilliant comedy.
The Informant! is a wild ride through the psyche of the fat Matt Damon’s depiction of Mark Whitacre, and a must-see for those who like good performances and the psychology of personality. A lot of critics say Soderbergh’s latest is another light movie, like his Ocean’s 11 franchise, but that’s not a fair appraisal. The Ocean’s are lighter than most Hollywood fantasies, shared between ensemble casts mugging for the camera. Like Soderbergh’s serious stuff (Erin Brockovich, Che) The Informant! really happened.
The screenplay by Scott Burns was based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald, and some of “the dialogue was dramatized, so there,” as we are told before the credits. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is a corny bio-chemist at ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) who makes lysine, a corn byproduct in practically everything we eat. Under Mark’s watch, a virus in the proverbial petri dishes is ruining the production quota at the plant, and the bosses at ADM are impatient for results. Mark is tipped off by a Japanese competitor about a saboteur in the ranks who is adding the virus, but the identity of the guy and antidote for the virus will not be revealed to ADM until they give the Japanese competitor-extortionist! $10 million.
When ADM calls the FBI in to help, it’s like gasoline to fire. Special Agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame) taps Mark’s phone to get the skinny, with Mark’s permission. After their private meeting in Shepard’s car, where Mark blows the whistle on international price-fixing at ADM, it is nearly impossible to tell who is drunker on their sense of righteous power and intrigue, the FBI or Mark. As Mark takes on his agent 0014 persona (because he’s twice as smart as 007), it is even harder to tell who is more bumbling in the investigation, the mole or his new coaches.
With more and more people (lawyers) involved in the investigation, the crimes become even harder to pin down, as revelation upon revelation leaves everyone with dropped jaw, most of all Mark Whitacre himself, because after all this blows over, why wouldn’t his position in the company be secure? He’s the good guy!
The story, and the stories within the story, feel so ambiguous and outlandish at times that such apparent disregard for plot would be a serious fault in any other movie, but Soderbergh and Damon make it work because The Informant! is unabashedly, gloriously character-driven. The real comedy here is Damon’s voice over, which doesn’t tell much story, except for similarities he sees in his life to “Crichton novels,” but mostly reveals his anxious penchant to preach musings to the audience-in-his-head on things like corn, ties and Japanese culture.
Like the billboards sporting Damon’s mustached face, I caught myself sporting a goofy, open smile, and literally thinking "unbelievable" about halfway into the story (maybe because I’m from the Midwest, too). It only gets crazier, and the hilarity punches you in the gut when the ending credits remind you that the unbelievable happened, and could be happening still ...
The Informant! is an unusually well-crafted comedy. The production design and fashions are supposed to be 1990s, but they feel somehow early ‘80s, in that slow-to-fashion Midwestern cultural drawl. The musical score in this film is a character study in itself, like a television soundtrack for kids and crime shows—cheeky, upbeat musical stings and accents you'd never want to hear otherwise. Even more nostalgic, the opening credit shots depict huge tape recorders, reminiscent of the Nixon-era paranoia films of Alan Pakula and Coppola’s The Conversation, and of course, the old Bond films.
The best comedies, however, have more defined, realistic perils. The Informant! loses some opportunity here with shallow supporting characters, the two that depend most on Mark’s honesty: Mark’s wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey) and Bakula’s impressively soulful Agent Shepard. Despite meager lines, their excellent performances leave you wanting more time with the relationships around Mark Whitacre.
The Informant! is right there on the funny-scale next to R-comedy hits Funny People and Hangover, because of Matt Damon’s standout performance. (By the way, it’s rated R for language, but only to show that Mark is a family man compared to his boss; overall it felt PG compared to the above.) If you tried to like the Coens' Burn After Reading but the characters were too shallow and contrived, The Informant! is your down-to-earth antidote. Finally, it also proves Hollywood thankfully has more than one character actor (Johnny Depp) with the range to carry an absurdist comedy.
