The Informant! is based on the remarkable true story of Mark Whitacre, the highest ranking whistle-blower in corporate American history. Whitacre works for ADM, a huge agriculture company that, if your to believe the opening monologue, provides corn or corn-based products for every food imaginable.  When the FBI are called in to investigate a possible blackmail attempt Whitacre is persuaded by his wife to approach the come clean to them about a large-scale price fixing cartel that ADM is at the centre of. The FBI soon then him informant in a quest to uncover the truth. To go any deeper into the plot would deprive you of the self-discovery that makes this movie worth watching, so I hope you’ll excuse my brevity.

This is Soderbergh’s fourth movie with Damon, after the Ocean’s trilogy (5th if you include Damon’s cameo in Ché), and the director and star are very comfortable with how each other works. The director allows Damon freedom within the role to go a little off-kilter. It’s unusual to see Damon like this, stodgy and lackadaisical instead of the trim, muscular action guy he’s become in recent years and here he gives one of his strongest performances. Whitacre is a complicated man, the movie allows us to see this by constantly interrupting what would be key scenes with internal monologues on often trival matters, and Damon portrays the multiple facets of the man’s personality to a tee. The supporting cast give as strong performances as they are allowed, Melanie Lynskey in particular is a stand-out as Whitacre’s wife, but ultimately the movie is all about Damon. That’s no bad thing though as in recent years he’s truly become one of the finest actors working in Hollywood.

The look of the movie is really quite something. It all yellows and summer colours. Visually the movie attempts to hark back to spy-thrillers of the 70s and 80s. Certainly Whitacre thinks he’s in one, calling himself 0014 at one stage, because he’s “twice as smart as 007″. What it reminded me most of was Catch Me If You Can, Steven Spielberg’s own based-on-a-true-story movie which had asimilar nostalgic feel. The similarities with CMIYC don’t end there as the opening credits and music also bear a startling resemblance. The music in fact is one of the movie’s best features. The score written by The Spy Who Loved Me composer Marvin Hamlisch is a light and breezy riff on Bond scores from yeas ago. The script is good but gets muddled in the middle, it feels like the director is torn between taking the movie down the more serious route or keeping it fun and frolicsome. Eventually he gets it right showing both sides of the coin, but you may begin to lose track of all the deception and cover-ups. Keep faith however as the pay-off is worth it when the whole deck come collapsing down.

Ultimately it’s a good movie, a little difficult to watch sometimes but very rewarding. Since the whole movie hangs on Damon it’s a good thing that he’s up to the task. You may well find yourself going back to see this again, to pick up on the subtle nuances and double-blinds. It’s one of those rare occasions where reading the book (by Kurt Eichenwald) or having knowledge of what actually happened will deprive from your enjoyment of the movie. You really need to be blind-sided by what happens, as only then will you experience the full impact of events. That’s not to say that you won’t enjoy it just as much if you do know what happens, it’s just that I didn’t and I felt better off because of it. The trailers and promotional material portray this as a airy comedy, it’s not,  in fact is a stunningly character portrayal of one man in a wholly unbelievable situation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Informant! is out November 20th, 2009.

© Niall for Culch.ie, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Movie Review, Scott Bakula, Steven Soderbergh, The Informant!

• Let’s start with a trailer for Facing Ali a documentary on Muhammad Ali. I am definitely looking forward to this:

• And another video – a clip from the upcoming very dark animated film called 9. Creepy as hell:

• The first pics are in of Russell Crowe in Robin Hood. Am I the only one who wants to hit his little head off a table a bit?

• Peter Jackson’s Lovely Bones may not please all fans of Sebold’s novel, but the fact that he said he’s dropping any God references and setting the film in a limbo between death and the afterlife certainly pleases me. I may even consider going to see it.

• Though The DaVinci Code sequel, Angel’s & Demons, doesn’t hit our screens for a few weeks, there will surely be plenty of talk of a third Langdon movie now that Dan Brown has revealed that the release date for his next novel, The Lost Symbol, will be September 15th 2009. I’ll admit to being excited about it. I love all of Dan Brown’s novels. They are well thought out pop entertainment, real page-turners. I’m hoping the Angel’s & Demons film will be better than the below par DaVinci Code, but the trailer looks awful. Fingers crossed.

• Michael Bay is known for his big blockbusters (Transformers, Armageddon, Bad Boys) but his next movie, Pain & Gain, is a smaller movie telling the true story of a couple of Florida steroid-abusing bodybuilders who become criminals involved in an extortion ring and a kidnapping plot that goes horribly wrong. No big explosions, no talking robots, no world in peril, just a character piece. It could be interesting.

• 28 Months Later, the second sequel to Danny Boyle’s instant classic 28 Days Later has been greenlit. That is all.

• Crank 2:High Voltage was released this week (more on that in another post), but it seems they are already discussing the follow up, Crank 3D. That Chev Chelios is some man for one man.

• And in sad news, JG Ballard has passed away. Ballard is probably best known for his novel Empire of the Sun, which went on to become an Oscar nominated film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring a very young Christian Bale. But I will remember him for writing the incredible Crash. The frightening study of human nature and sexual perversion centres on a group of car-crash fetishists. It went on to be a very controversial David Cronenberg movie starring James Spader and Holly Hunter. Profound and disturbing, it is one of my favourite films. Spare a thought for this influential man who died on Sunday aged 78 from complications arising from prostate cancer.

• The Girlfriend Experience is Steven Soderbergh’s movie about a high end call girl in Manhattan. It’s star, Sasha Grey, has made over 150 adult films in the past three years. Check out her Filmography – some of the film titles are hilarious. And check out The Girlfriend Experience trailer – this film is worth a look:

© Darren for Culch.ie, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 28 Months Later, Angel's & Demons, Crank 2, Dan Brown, JG Ballard, Lovely Bones, Michael Bay, Mohammed Ali, Peter Jackson, Robin Hood, Russell Crowe, Star Trek, Steven Soderbergh, The DaVinci Code, The Girlfriend Experience, The Lost Symbol