The Informant!

The Informant! (2009)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Length:108 minutes
Rated R for language



The corporate whistle-blower film has been done before, albeit with a much more dramatic flair (see the 1999 Michael Mann classic The Insider). But with director Steven Soderbergh, the director of the Ocean's trilogy, you just knew his snarky, white-collar humor was bound to prevail. While star Matt Damon continues to show his acting chops, The Informant! is more of a mess than the tangled web of lies Damon's character spins.

Based on a true story and the novel of the same name by Kurt Eichenwald, Matt Damon (Green Zone, The Adjustment Bureau) play Mark Whitacre, a young bio-chemist who uncovers an industry-wide price fixing scandal; armed with the knowledge of his company's deviance, Mark soon perpetrates a fraud that will swindle the FBI, the US government, his company, and others. Damon truly is the only highlight to the movie, though he is hardly recognizable. Packing on the pounds to play the stereotypical white-collar desk junkie, Damon rocks a porn 'stache and beer gut that Ron Burgundy would lust after. Damon's Whitacre will drive you nuts with his compulsive and fervent lying, even when he is caught in the act.

Beyond Damon, there is little to the movie. The events that showcase Mark's fraud are scattered and messy; though you can trail what is happening, it is exhausting trying to maintain a running record of each lie. Personally, I found it extremely frustrating that the movie failed to truly present Mark's motivation or need to commit fraud. As an accounting major, I am taught the signs of a fraudster as well as reasons often accompanying such an act. While the movie does do an excellent job mentioning how Mark's behavior had changed, etc., it fails to explain what was his ultimate motivation to perpetrate the fraud.

For a movie claiming to be a comedy, the laughs are few and far between, often resulting in the more dry variety. Soderbergh is known for his more "sophisticated" humor, and The Informant! is no exception. However, it would be nice if the humor was actually...well...humorous. It is certainly worth watching to see a pudgy Matt Damon in action, but be prepared to feel apathetic towards the film in the end.

Final Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Favorite Quote:
Mark Whitacre: "When polar bears hunt, they crouch down by a hole in the ice and wait for a seal to pop up. They keep one paw over their nose so that they blend in, because they've got those black noses. They'd blend in perfectly if not for the nose. So the question is, how do they know their noses are black? From looking at other polar bears? Do they see their reflections in the water and think, "I'd be invisible if not for that." That seems like a lot of thinking for a bear."