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Earlier this year, moviegoers got a taste of the food industry’s real-life failures, courtesy of Robert Kenner’s eye-opening documentary, .nightsandweekends.com/articles/09/NW0900358.php>Food, Inc. Now, director Steven Soderbergh offers a very different view of the industry through the eyes of a young executive in The Informant!
A pudgy Matt Damon stars as Mark Whitacre, a biochemist turned division president at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), an agricultural conglomerate based in Decatur, Illinois. In 1992, as Mark is struggling with a problem involving the company’s latest product, lysine, he comes to his boss with a possible solution: one of his Japanese contacts claims that there’s a mole in the company. For just $10 million, Mark can learn the mole’s identity and solve the problem with lysine. But before Mark can make a deal with his contact, ADM calls the FBI in to investigate.
As Mark works with the FBI, though, his knowledge of the company’s other dealings weigh heavy on his mind—so he opens up to Special Agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) about a massive price-fixing scheme that involves several of ADM’s competitors. He even agrees to wear a wire and blow the whole thing wide open. But Mark’s vivid imagination starts to get in the way—and the more he tells his contacts at the FBI, the less they know what’s really going on at ADM.
Based on a true story (and the book written by investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald), The Informant! is an imaginative romp through a delusional mind—but it wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining without Matt Damon in the lead.
Thanks to Damon’s oddly enjoyable performance, it doesn’t take long to clue in to the fact that there’s something a bit…off…about Mark. Sure, he seems like a nice enough guy, but he’ll remind you of that obliviously chatty neighbor—the one you try to avoid at all costs whenever you’re out mowing your lawn. He’s extremely friendly, but if you let him start talking, he might just ramble on for days.
Damon gives Mark the perfect mix of eccentricity and boyish charm. On the surface, he seems like just another clueless rube, but there’s much more to him than you might expect. His mind constantly wanders off to some of the most amusing places. And as important conversations go on around him, Mark is often in his own imaginary world—a world where his Jack Handey-style internal monologue never stops. Viewers are treated to resonant voiceovers, in which he contemplates everything from cars to fitness to polar bears. It’s no wonder that Mark doesn’t often grasp the reality of the world around him—because the world in his head is so much more fascinating.
Meanwhile, as Mark imagines himself a sort of secret agent (“0014,” he tells his neighbor, “because I’m twice as smart as 007”), the already messy case only gets messier. It’s sometimes hard to follow—because, like the baffled FBI agents, you won’t really know what’s going on. But it’s an enjoyable ride nonetheless. And although the film could have been a few minutes shorter, my only real complaint is with the lighting, which (intentionally or not) sometimes makes the film feel thin and washed-out.
Still, viewers who enjoyed Soderbergh’s Ocean’s series of retro-styled capers will be equally entertained by The Informant! It may not be as smooth or as slick, but, despite its early ‘90s setting, it still has the same campy retro vibe—and the same tangled storyline. It’s an enjoyably corny take on corporate scandal.
