Rating: R | Runtime: 108 minutes
Release Date: September 18th, 2009 (USA)
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director(s): Steven Soderbergh
Writer(s): Scott Z. Burns / Kurt Eichenwald (book The Informant: A True Story)

Wow! What a ride. Lot’s of memories.

Leave it to a director like Steven Soderbergh to film an epic six-hour look into the life of Ché Guevara at war, follow that up with a low-budget indie about a prostitute, and then throw everyone for a loop with the dark, off-beat comedy The Informant! When I first started hearing about the project, I anticipated a serious investigative film about a company’s price fixing scandal. Based on a novel by Kurt Eichenwald that’s labeled a thriller by many, the tale shows how a rising company man in Mark Whitacre became the highest-level employee to ever turn whistleblower.

Written by a journalist and hailed as one of the best nonfiction books of its decade, one would never think the cinematic adaptation of its inner workings of the FBI would be so goofy and uproariously funny. But then you look at the posters, trailer, and Matt Damon hamming it up—the title has an exclamation point, after all—and you must wonder if Soderbergh hijacked the story or stuck to the facts. With a disclaimer flashing to say things have been changed from real life and capped by a “So there,” you know the ride will be fun.

The highlight of the film is Matt Damon. Starring in so many action/dramas of late, it’s great to see him going the comedic route. The guy was in Kevin Smith films and hammed it up in the Ocean’s movies too, but here he has center stage to show the kind of chops he has in the genre. With hair resembling a bad toupee and a pedophilic mustache, his Whitacre is mid-90s businessman elite … only with a conscience. Sort of. A lover of crime films and courtroom dramas, he begins to live his life as though he’s in one himself.

When describing what’s going on to the FBI, he breaks out the line, “It’s like Rising Sun, the Crichton novel.” During a voiceover he begins comparing things to The Firm. He sees that his company—a corn producer with its hands in pretty much every consumer product on the market—is criminally involved with competitors to fix prices and steal from their respective publics. Wanting to be the hero who saves the day with the hopeful endgame of being the only person left and thus handed the whole company, he decides to fabricate a story to get the FBI in his sights. And then pounces, sparking a two-year sting operation to bring Archer Daniels Midland down.

Soderbergh was at the TIFF screening I attended and, after being introduced as having been there twenty years prior with his debut feature, said “[There’s] no sex, no videotapes, but enough lies to last another twenty years.” And boy was he right. You not only become aware of the many lies being told inside the company as the movie progresses, but also the information Whitacre himself is withholding from the FBI, his lawyers, and the world. By the end, you can’t help wondering if the whole thing is just one big lie.

I would love to know what the real Whitacre thinks about this on-screen representation. Does he enjoy the exaggerated caricature? Does he hate it because the imbecilic nature at the core of Damon’s role hits too close to home? The activities portrayed are so zany that I must believe screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and Soderbergh just used the outline of fact before making it completely their own. My only complaint would be that it goes ten to twenty minutes too long to find a repetition that soon lacks the wittier charm of the start.

With a cast of familiar faces and some comic greats (The Smothers Brothers!) it’s still Damon who shines most. His delivery is priceless and his facial expressions genuinely childlike in their enthusiasm. The entire film has him playing a game, unaware of how deep he was getting in and how his extracurricular activities yet to be exposed make him a hypocrite. As long as he’s the center of attention wearing the white hat to take down the bad guys with his FBI cohorts in tow, nothing else matters.

Speaking of those agents, how great is it seeing Scott Bakula sinking his teeth into a lengthy role again? His straight man to Damon’s goof could not be played more perfectly. And then you get Joel McHale of “The Soup” fame to play the most serious government agent in the world? It’s just Soderbergh having fun with preconceptions. He’s cast so many comics in serious roles while Jason Bourne himself schlubs around with a permanent cheesy smile plastered on his face.

What transpires is funny enough due to this huge criminal investigation having a moron at its center who risks exposure every second. He’s so excited to be starring in his own version of the sitcom television and pulp Hollywood movies he enjoys, that he keeps a tape recorder hidden in his briefcase to ensure he can show people how cool it was. He is 0014 after all. Twice as smart as 007.

What works even better than the actual story, though, is his mind. The epitome of Attention Deficit Disorder, Mark Whitacre loses his train of thought on a regular basis. You won’t be blamed for thinking you missed something when a character responds to a question and Damon’s voiceover just drowns it out. While important information is being relayed, all we hear are the ramblings of a crazy man spoting the most mundane things popping into his head. Some of these one-liners are so great that you’re almost watching just to get to the next tangent his brain wanders towards.

So, whether or not the film is an accurate portrayal of the subject matter it’s based upon is moot. The real point is to find out what will happen to Whitacre once the dust settles. Naïve to the core, we know he’s due a wakeup call at some point—even if his FBI handlers think he’s the bravest man in America doing everything for his wife, kids, and sense of moral responsibility. If only they knew he’s just here for the rush of excitement because he couldn’t think past step one.

Why comprehend that unearthing all the wheelings and dealings of a company he held a high position at could cost him his career when you can enjoy the present and have fun playing spy? Don’t feel sorry for him and don’t question his motives, though, because he doesn’t really have any. Just sit down and prepare to laugh because Soderbergh has crafted a comedic gem that should rake in the money needed to finance his next indie. He’s truly excelling in both spheres of the industry regardless of budget or box office.

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Matt Damon stars as Mark Whitacre in Warner Bros. Pictures’, Participant Media’s and Groundswell Productions’ offbeat comedy THE INFORMANT! Photo by Claudette Barius.