Warner Bros. Pictures | 2009 | Rated R | 108 minutes

Academy Award® winning director Steven Soderbergh (TRAFFIC, OCEAN’S ELEVEN franchise) brings the real-life story of Mark Whitacre, the executive turned whistleblower, to the big screen in THE INFORMANT!. Working for the agricultural mega-corporation ADM, Whitacre (Matt Damon) was on the fast track to success. Already the youngest VP in the company’s history, Whitacre was making a $350,000 a year salary in the early nineties that allowed for he and his family to live a life of luxury, worrying only about which of their fleet of cars to drive, or how construction was progressing on the horse stables they were erecting on their property. Whitacre though decided to turn FBI informant to expose the multinational price fixing his company was perpetrating because he believed in his heart that it was the right thing to do and that he in turn would be lauded as a hero. Whitacre decided to then wear a wire in his efforts to gather enough evidence against ADM and to put an end to the illegal activities of his company once and for all.

While a film based entirely on the familiar premise of a corporate whistleblower bringing down a large company has been seen before, most notably in Michael Mann’s Oscar nominated 1999 film THE INSIDER, with THE INFORMANT! Soderbergh takes the concept to a unique level and in the process makes a film that is distinctively different from anything that has been seen before. This is due primarily to the focus on Mark Whitacre and the fantastical world that he creates inside of his own head, creating an atmosphere where the lines of reality are often blurred. Played to absolute perfection by Matt Damon, Whitacre goes through the film with a smile and the honest belief that he is one of the good guys, wearing a white hat to come in and save the day, while those engaged in the illegal activities are the bad guys in the black hats and that it is his duty to bring them down. He absolutely loves his job, and the enthusiasm Damon instills talking about the corn and lysine projects his company is working on, brings such a great dynamic to the role. Damon completely gets lost in the character of Whitacre, putting on weight to fill out the pudgy frame of the corporate exec, and develops such a persona of a doe-eyed innocence and childlike fun at getting to play secret agent that a very subtle humor emerges that continuously rolls along throughout the entire movie.

Soderbergh utilizes voice overs to place the audience inside Whitacre’s head, and while this is normally a painful contrivance on the part of a filmmaker, here it works to great effect and further serves to build upon the dry humor of the film. For instance, in routinely intense scenes where something dramatic is taking place, instead of hearing Whitacre’s insights into what is going on, he will start musing through the voice over about how polar bears know to cover their noses to help camouflage them against the snow or simply state something like “I like my hands.” While creating a comedic juxtaposition against the dramatic narrative, it also builds Whitacre up to be a character much like Walter Mitty, completely, and long ago lost in his own fantasies that he has ceased to operate within any parameters of normalcy any longer. During one scene that is not only indicative of the level of humor in THE INFORMANT!, but also parallels the development of character, Damon’s voice over explains how cool it would be to have a TV show where a guy would call home only to have himself answer the phone, thus prompting his search to locate his split self.

To build upon the atmosphere of the film that Damon creates with his character, THE INFORMANT! is scored beautifully by Marvin Hamlisch (THE STING), with instrumental themes that remarkably frame the offbeat comedic tone of the film. The music itself almost becomes another facet of Damon’s Whitacre and helps serve to punctuate any sort of dramatic overtones a scene may be taking on with the same carefree and lighthearted approach that is woven throughout the film.

THE INFORMANT! unfortunately begins to unravel at the end of its second act and throughout its third, and while there are some funny moments where some of Whitacre’s fantasies are continuously brought to light, it does seem to feel a little bit like the film has run its course. Due primarily to the fact that the movie covers over a decade of Whitacre’s life, the elements of his character that are incredibly comedic throughout the first half of the picture tend to grow thin, as if the audience is being subjected to the same joke over and over again. This is a minor point, and since the film is dealing with a real life individual, it is evident why Soderbergh chose to do this. Narrowing in though on a shorter time frame in which to set the movie would have dramatically strengthened the overall plot and helped keep the tone of the film feeling fresh.

Still, THE INFORMANT! is a wildly unique and quirky comedy and Damon’s performance is definitely one of the year’s best.

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