The Informant! (2009)

In 1992 Mark Whitacre, the President of Bio-Product division of ADM (powerful Fortune 500 company), became the highest ranking executive EVER to turn whistle blower. For three years he helped the FBI gather evidence of a multinational conspiracy to control the price of lysine. As a result, US government collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from ADM and foreign corporations, followed by prison sentences for three executives. These are events in real life as well as the movie. However, according to the opening credits, the film is not intended as a documentary and does depart from real life facts... The final, cheeky line of the prologue: "So there!", gives us a hint that, though the topic and the consequences suffered by many in this story are somber, what we are about to see is meant to amuse and entertain, as well as educate...

As promised, the chuckles do come often, but their source is not your typical one liners. Matt Damon is Whitacre, an inspired choice for the role. His plump, mustachioed and toupeed character comes across so harmless and ordinary you never question why his actions go undetected; even as his concealed recording equipment loudly malfunctions during a covert multinational executive meeting! You laugh at the bewilderment of FBI agents and the DA's office as they are led by the nose by Whitacre's increasingly outlandish antics. One could say "The Informant!" has the educational quality of an Aesop's fable: blinded by their desire to swallow a tasty morsel (ADM), the agents cross their fingers and fail to run even the most basic checks on their informant; checks that would immediately reveal inconsistencies in his stories (such as the true nature of his parentage, for example).

The film is not perfect. Based on the way it was being advertised, I expected something in the same category as "The Pink Panther". In reality, one would not be wrong to describe it as a combination of "A Beautiful Mind", "The Insider", and "The Duck Soup" (Marx Brothers). Sadly, "The Informant!" never quite becomes as touching, thrilling and funny as those films were, respectively. The makers allow it to drag on a bit in the second half as Whitacre's behaviour becomes absurd. The logical explanation for it all arrives only after our initial keen interest has already begun to dissipate. I also hear some grumblings about the film's muted lighting. Since most of the action takes place in offices and hotels, I believe the lighting is true to reality. Anyone who has spent at least one work day in a cubicle, understands how oppressive that atmosphere can be. Despite these possible faults, Whitacre's story and Damon's performance make "The Informant!" worthy of at least one theater trip. Depending on your personal approach, you will see a funny thriller or... a thrilling comedy. Either way, expect to be entertained!

PS: BRAVO! to the filmmakers for sticking to a relatively modest budget ($21 mil)! I am sick of paying to see worthless films with budgets that could bankrupt the economy of a small country.

Having grown up just a few miles from where the events of THE INFORMANT! took place (though I was just a kid at the time), I may be rather partial to the film; after all, Matt Damon and much of the supporting cast has the personality down pat, with a few aside-jokes that definitely capture the atmosphere of East-Central Illinois. But you don't have to be from here to appreciate the film's humor; you just have to be patient.

Why? Because THE INFORMANT is a slow burner. It's the story of Mark Whitacre, who decides to blow the lid on some illegal doings at the corn-processing plant where he works. Whitacre, however, is anything but the ideal witness--but it takes about two-thirds of the movie to find that out. Kudus to Joel McHale and Scott Bakula as the FBI agents in charge of Whitacre's case, and Soderbergh for actually making a movie of this; and a tip-of-the-hat to Matt Damon, who turns in a nuanced performance. But the character doesn't really build until the third act, which is the when the movie turns from humor to poignancy, and we realize the real tale here.

The thing is, it's just hard to forgive THE INFORMANT its slow build-up. Real hard. It's worth the effort; a lot of the humor is subtle, and the film progressively gets darker, until you realize this isn't a feel-good comedy after all. But it takes so long getting there, a large part of the audience is bound to stop caring. Thus, THE INFORMANT! is for patient fans of comedy (of which there are painfully few today). If nothing else, see it for Damon's spot-on performance; he and Bakula especially are taking this film and running with it, for better or worse (mainly better).

Buy The Informant! (2009) Now

Intro: This is a review of the movie as an experience. Look elsewhere if you want an overview of the story, or how well the movie reflects actual events and people.

For those who would be satisfied with a movie that was simply a collection of goofy and absurdist scenes, I expect that the pacing here is much to slow to be satisfying, although in the second half it becomes noticeably less slow.

For those expecting more, the basic problem here is with how the lead character Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is portrayed. It is immediately reminiscent of the William H Macy character in Fargo: A doofus in over his head who is flailing about. However, in Fargo there was a progression to that state--here it starts at that point and doesn't change much.

Even without the Fargo baggage, the Whitacre character is too big a goof to be sympathetic or funny. My first impression was that he was an incompetent bottom level manager. When he was identified as a top manager, I couldn't help but think of him as a fraud, thereby undermining everything that was to come. In addition to his being a fraud within the movie, it was a fraud on the audience: Such a personality would never have gotten a PhD (from Cornell), much less risen so high in a major corporation (most people forced to work with such a person would be screaming and throwing things at him before the end of the first day).

The core of the movie's story is the revelation of a series of deceptions and lies. The typical dramatic treatment, whether serious or humorous, is akin to a roller-coaster: It elevates your confidence that you know what is happening, then suddenly puts you into free fall, adding twists and turns to increase your disorientation. You start to climb out of that, only to be hit by additional drops. This movie has no such drama: It just goes gently and slowly round and round, the tone being closer to enumerating the lies than to revealing them. Perhaps Whitacre was intended to be played by an improvisational comic who was expected to fill in such texture?

As a movie, the significant story elements should have been _seen_ and not merely commented on by characters. For example, Whitacre is presented as being maniac-depressive (bipolar), but we never _see_ that roller-coaster of emotions--the portrayal is very flat. At the very end, statements of various characters provide some evidence of this (Nigerian scam, compulsive over-consumption). Additionally, when part of the story is whether his underlying mental problems were triggered or exacerbated by his role as an informant, how could they not show this, but simply comment on it at the end?

The script has characters _saying_ that Whitacre is brilliant, but I remember only a couple of scenes where he _appeared_ even mildly clever.

We are _told_ that even after all the revelations of Whitacre's crimes and lying that some of the Feds (FBI and prosecutors) strongly advocated clemency for him, but from the movie, I couldn't guess why. And during the extended investigation, there is no sense of the passage of time--other than dates being flashed on the screen. Nor do we _see_ the stresses on Whitacre: The script trivializes his risks and sacrifices by consigning them to asides in the disconnected goofy scenes that constitute this movie.

This movie seems to have been intended to be both funny and interesting, but is neither.

Read Best Reviews of The Informant! (2009) Here

My daughter and I went to see The Informant, staring Matt Damon. We loved it. It was very entertaining. I have to say that we got a lot more out of it because we listened to the episode on NPR's This American Life about Mark Whitacre, the real-life character upon which this movie was based. The movie is not as detailed as the story, for obvious reasons.

The Informant's Executive Producer is George Clooney. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The movie version of this true story manages to put a somewhat humorous spin on a very serious subject corporate corruption. Matt Damon does such a great job acting here, that you never really think of the character as Damon acting. He even gained a bunch of weight to get a middle aged spread for the role, a common thing for actors to do these days. The rest of the cast was excellent as well, including Scott Bakula and even the Smothers Brothers!

Imagine a corporate executive (Whitacre) who goes to the FBI (because his wife says she will if he doesn't) to turn in his colleagues at Archer Daniels Midland Company for price fixing. Whitacre becomes an informant for several years working magic for the FBI, completely fooling those who work in his company as well as business associates from around the world. But of course there's a twist. Whitacre is not being completely honest with the FBI, his wife or himself. Despite all this he is a brilliant and totally likeable guy.

You'll walk away from this movie saying to yourself, "OMG, this is a true story, and Mark Whitacre is a real person, a sociopath who has no trouble lying to the FBI!" You'll also be thinking about how much we don't know about the companies America relies upon for food and other essentials and just how corrupt corporations can be. Oh yeah, and you'll be pondering just how it is that a man's wife can bear to stand by him through a lifetime of lying and cheating.

So either read the book or listen to the NPR This American Life episode about it, and then go and see the movie. It will make you think a lot about corporate America, the stocks you buy and your hard-working corporate executive friends. Do you really know who they are?

FYI Children under 14 will likely not be too interested in this movie, unless of course they are fascinated by corruption or American business.

Want The Informant! (2009) Discount?

Ever in the mood for some decidedly offbeat entertainment? Sure; we all are, from time to time. How many shoot-'em-ups and car chases and rom-coms can we take to begin with? For an eccentric changeup I recommend the quirky THE INFORMANT!, a (slightly) dark comedy about an "Aw shucks" nerd who helps bring down an international price-fixing cabal (on food derivatives, for cryin' out loud). Based on a true story, this movie quietly entertains while giving the viewer a sound dose of corn pone (pun intended).

THE INFORMANT! is carried delightfully on the pudgy shoulders of Matt Damon, playing ADM junior exec Mark Whitacre. Good ol' Mark looks like someone you would rub elbows with at an ice cream social, and his sophomoric view of the corporate world is matched only by his cluelessness. Cooperating with the FBI (he gets wired) he gathers evidence to put his coworkers away. . .then expects his employer to reward him for his efforts. And Damon does all of this with a quirky, "gee willickers!" delivery that had me in stitches; as the movie grows even darker--with Whitacre growing ever more delusional--the jaw-dropping, disbelieving looks of his FBI cohorts (Scott Bakula and Joel McHale) are priceless. Four stars instead of five, due to needless meandering; THE INFORMANT! indeed proves that quirky can be good for you.

--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

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