The Informant!
Starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, and Joel McHale
Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven)
Rated R for language
Appropriate for ages 15+
When Mark Whitacre (Damon) starts lying to protect himself from crimes he has committed at work, he volunteers to serve as a star witness to the FBI against his company in order to protect himself.
There’s a whole lot more to the film than that last statement, but I’d hate to give anything else away because it’s all just too much fun to discover for yourself. To think that this film is a true story is absolutely amazing.
The story itself isn’t that excitement. A whistle blower from an agricultural company works with the FBI to have his company investigated for price fixing. Wow. Yawn. So what makes it fun? Matt Damon. Damon brings a life to this character that I’m sure the real life character could have never given off. He narrates the film so that we as the audience know exactly what is going on at all times, but then his inner monologue goes off on tangents like a dog being distracted by a squirrel. So even when there is some serious stuff going down on screen, you hear him getting distracted and off subject and you can’t help but wonder what the heck he is going to say next. As a character he is one of the most entertaining I’ve seen in years. He had me in stitches from start to finish. As a performance, his is the best I’ve seen this year – by far. I don’t know if that will be my final synopsis in December, but nine months out of ten ain’t bad.
Directing-wise, this is Soderbergh’s best work since Traffic. The film is well-paced and well-crafted. Of course it helps when you have a script of this quality from Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z. Burns.
So consider yourself informed – you gotta see this movie! A