When we practice to deceive
Matt Damon is fat, paranoid and more than funny as a bipolar informant
By Erik Hayden 09/24/2009
The Informant!
Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula. Rated R for language.
Truth is a funny thing in court.
Tell evasive half-truths crafted by lawyers, and you’ll have a shot at winning the case. But describe the whole truth, even just once in the midst of multiple tall tales, and you’ll find yourself in an ugly downward spiral — most likely culminating in jail time. Such is the dilemma presented by The Informant!, a character study of the brainy, bumbling and hesitant corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon).
Whitacre is, however, no fool. He’s a highly educated biochemist who has risen along the corporate ladder of the agricultural commodity behemoth ADM and doesn’t really like what he sees. After some prodding by his wife, Ginger (Melanie Lynskey), he begrudgingly informs an FBI agent (Scott Bakula) about the company’s recent strides to fix prices with its global competitors and drive up the price of everything from soda to cereal.
Since he has been in the room for every negotiation, he’s the perfect candidate to wear a wire, become an informant for the FBI and bring the corrupt corporate dealers to justice. It’s a formula that strikes a breezy tone similar to Catch Me If You Can — except the charismatic Leonardo DiCaprio character has been replaced by a businessman with a bad, early ’90s hairdo, meandering attention span and increasingly damaging personal foibles.
Behind this mess of a man lies an almost unrecognizable Matt Damon (who gained more than 30 pounds for the role). Near-constant uncanny voice-over monologues narrate Whitacre’s ever-shifting thoughts, while slowly revealing the true cause of his impulsive truth bending. His big mouth flabbergasts the FBI agents he is working with and repeatedly scuttles attempts to shed light on the corruption scandal. Even the lawyers who represent him throw up their arms in disgust — the guy just won’t shut up.
Damon as Whitacre is so believable (yet still whimsical) that by the end of the film you forget that this fat schmuck played the efficient, steely-eyed spy Jason Bourne in three movies. It’s a shrewd career move akin to Brad Pitt’s turn as the gum-chewing, airhead gym employee in #Burn After Reading#, and it pays similar dividends. Even when he absentmindedly fiddles with his toupee (he actually goes bald for a period), Damon never loses sight of the character’s purpose as a flawed messenger decrying the abuses of his multinational corporation.
Having acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh on board did much to add levity to a film that could have devolved into a slapstick farce. He deftly unveils the convoluted legal mess that Whitacre gets himself and the cooperating FBI agents into, while still maintaining the tone and humor that made the first half’s corporate espionage scenes so amusing. By the end of the film, despite the continuous internal dialogue and rapid-fire observations on life and corporate corruption, you’ll realize that you never knew the real Mark Whitacre. With so many fabrications, it’s hard to tell what’s actually real.
The irony of the film, of course, is that the screenplay is based on a book that is apparently based on a true story. Mark Whitacre was a real person and actual former employee of ADM (a real company) who acted as an informant for the FBI. If the story is as true as the film’s disclaimer states, then the “truth” becomes even more convoluted. How many tapes did Whitacre actually make of the secret price-fixing discussions held by the corporations? Is he just an inventive felon with an axe to grind, or corporate whistle-blower smeared by the inevitable counterattack of the company’s law firm?
We don’t know those answers because, again as the disclaimer notes, the film’s situations are exaggerated, and just as many characters are composites drawn from experience with different sources. The moviemakers, content with the fascinating story, will only shrug and say take it or leave it.
In the final words of the film’s disclaimer: So there.
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