Blogorium Review: The Informant!

According to a recent comment, the Cap'n has been a bit of a Negative Nancy with the last two reviews. I find this a little odd since the Crazy Heart review was basically positive, focusing on Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell, although I did need to qualify that a) I didn't think the movie was a "great" film and b) that I don't agree with the post-Oscar backlash that it was "beneath Jeff Bridges." I was pretty harsh on An Education, but that happens from time to time when a movie patently fails to rise above the bare minimum required for it to be watchable. It could have been a better film, but it wasn't, so I admit to being a little rough.

(I will note that reviews for Predators and Inception were largely positive, and having seen Predators a second time, I'm willing to concede that it was even more effective in being a direct sequel to Predator than I first admitted.)

Anyway, I thought I'd step aside from the perceived "scathing" nature of recent reviews and focus on a movie I genuinely like, Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, a movie that I think got a bum rap because of the assumed "one independent Soderbergh film / one major studio film to pay for the next independent film" pattern he's adhered to in recent years. I could get into a serious debate on that argument alone, considering that even when he's "slumming" and making Ocean's films (which I happen to enjoy) that it doesn't automatically make Che or The Girlfriend Experience superior films on principle (although I also enjoyed both of those films too), but instead I'll focus on The Informant!, which is a clever "true story" film that showcases Soderbergh's affinities for spy films, sitcoms, and has one of his more interesting "gimmicks."

The Informant! is also a fine showcase for everything that Matt Damon does well as an actor. Damon plays Mark Whitacre, a mid-level executive at Archer Daniels Midland, a company that makes lysine for most of the foods sold in the US. Whitacre is smart, successful, and has a loving wife (Melanie Lynskey) and two kids. He also happens to be at best bipolar, and at worst, a pathological liar.

Whitacre, for reasons unknown to the audience, decides that while FBI agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) is over to tap his line for another corporate espionage case - involving a Japanese rival - now is the time to clue in the FBI about a price fixing scheme involving all of the major food additive companies world wide. This is but the beginning of a labyrinth of lies, half truths, and revelations tied directly to Whitacre, who insists that he's being the hero, and eventually the martyr, of a story of his making.

In case you're thinking "wow, that sounds ridiculous," now's the time to point out that screenwriter Scott Z. Burns adapted this from Kurt Eichenwald's book of the same name, which is the true story of Mark Whitacre and the first major criminal case centered around price fixing in the U.S. This American Life has a podcast involving the actual participants, available here, and it's every bit as fascinating*.

For the film, Soderbergh aims for a slightly heightened tone, a world where the sun is a little too bright and washes out most of the cast (appropriate in a film where most of the players have something to hide). The tone is a cross between l70s thrillers like All the President's Men or The Conversation, spy films, and sitcoms of the 70s and 80s (reflected in Marvin Hamlisch's score to a T). Despite the seeming disparity of these elements, the film works from beginning to end, in part because of Damon's Whitacre.

Mark Whitacre is constantly talking via narration throughout The Informant!, despite the fact that he appears to be saying nothing of consequence most of the time. The trick here is that Whitacre is filling us with semi-relevant information in order to keep the audience from figuring out what he's really up to; in essence, we're as behind the curve as Agents Shepard and Herndon (Joel McHale). It's a clever move, because when it becomes clear why Whitacre is constantly talking and how it differs from what he really means (played out in a crushing scene near the end), the audience realizes how duped we were from moment one.

The Informant! plays out like a spy film in that we're given the information in small doses but aren't sure what it is we're supposed to do with it until the master plan becomes clear. The cheery atmosphere compounds our sense of confusion and the highly technical nature of food additives and price fixing keep viewers off guard just long enough for The Informant! to entertain and engage. And then there's the other thing...

Steven Soderbergh usually has some kind of "gimmick" for each of his films: a particular film trick he's fascinated with and wants to use as the backdrop for latest project. For example, Ocean's Twelve is littered with traces of French New Wave editing and camera tricks. The Good German was made using only equipment available before 1946; Traffic separated its locations by color filters; Full Frontal involved actors who brought their own makeup and wardrobe; The Limey used footage from an earlier Terence Stamp film as "flashbacks." You get the idea.

The hook or "gimmick" for The Informant! for Soderbergh is to use comedians or recognizable comic actors in serious roles, and the film is jam packed with them. Joel McHale (Community, The Soup) is the tip of the iceberg, playing straight but hilarious in part because of his exasperation with Whitacre's smoke and mirrors. You can also see Patton Oswalt, Tony Hale, Allan Havey, Tom Papa, Andrew Daly, Bob Zany, Larry Clarke, Jimmy Brogan, Richard Horvitz (voice of ZIM!), Ann Cusack, Joshua Funk, Rick Overton, Paul F. Tompkins, and both Smothers brothers. This is not including the rest of the supporting cast, which includes Clancy Brown, Eddie Jemison, and Frank Welker. If the names don't sound familiar, I assure you the faces do. Everybody is playing it straight, and at times it is hard to figure out if you should expect a joke from anyone but Damon.

Despite knowing the history of ADM and the Federal investigation into price fixing, I was enormously entertained by The Informant!. I know that people like to beat up on Matt Damon for various reasons (Team America seems to pop up most frequently), but without Damon's innocuous subterfuge, the film doesn't work. Period. You have to buy that this guy is nothing to write home about, and Damon really works all of the facets of Whitacre simultaneously and does it so well that you don't notice him "acting." That's high praise from where the Cap'n is sitting, and Soderbergh is no slouch either. I've been down on him before for purely technical exercises (The Good German springs to mind), but the cheery presentation of such a dry story does The Informant! justice. Definitely worth checking out.

* I actually suggest you listen to the show after you've seen the movie, unless you want to know exactly what Whitacre is hiding during the film.