Movie Review: The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! is not an easy film to write about. There is so much to like in the movie, the performances are strong, the writing is inventive and never settles for easy jokes, and the direction is strong. Yet, somehow, The Informant! manages to disappoint despite all that it has going for it.

The Informant!, despite whatever faults it may have, is an extremely challenging movie. It tells the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon turning in one of his most fully developed performances ever) executive turned whistle-blower at lysine developing company ADM. When the FBI begins to investigate ADM, Mark turns spy exposing an illegal-multinational price-fixing scheme that leads all the way to the top of his company. As new truths and new lies about ADM begin to surface, the honesty or lack thereof of Mark is also called into question. Oh yeah, and this is all a comedy.

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There are so many things to like about The Informant!, first and foremost among them is the stellar cast. In addition to Matt Damon, Soderbergh managed to get some of the finest character actors (a surprising number of them stand-up comedians) to round out his cast. Featuring The Smothers Brothers, Scott Bakula, Thomas F. Wilson, Clancy Brown and Patton Oswalt, Soderbergh's cast manages to be well-controlled and subtle as the film grows progressively more and more ridiculous. But, at the end of the day, this is really Matt Damon's show. Here, under some additional weight and one of the best (or at least funniest) mustaches, he really does give a complex and deeply layered performance. By turns hilarious and infuriating Damon's Whitacre pulls off the difficult task of adding humanity to corporate America, while still being enough of a weasel that you can detest him.

Also the writing of the film is mature and interesting. Whitacre, as well as all of the characters surrounding him, are filled with just enough moral ambiguity to prevent them from being outright caricatures (which the film gets awfully close to doing). Covering similar territory as his deeply felt, and critically acclaimed, Erin Brockovich covered almost a decade ago, Soderbergh seems right at home with the sharp, often uncompromising writing. (Special note: The Informant! is the first comedy I've seen in a long time that does not rely on a single cheap joke, such as potty-humor.)

With all this going for it The Informant! managed to miss the mark. While Matt Damon's performance is uncompromising and astonishing, the character is too milquetoast for an audience member to feel sorry for or identify with. He is not even interesting enough that he falls into the anti-hero-you-like-to-hate category. Watching Damon build this intricate house of lies makes you uncomfortable to be in his head (at times throughout the movie Damon narrates Whitacre's thoughts), and, being that he is in every scene, makes the task of identifying with/caring about what happens to him a near impossibility.

Though the movie is set in the 90s throughout the film Soderbergh seemed to be going for a 70s retro feel. From the score (by three time Oscar winner Marvin Hamlisch) to the on-screen graphics, this retro-ness permeates. Something about the way that this was balanced makes it feel really muddled and schizophrenic, almost as if it was added for no reason other than to be cool.

The Hamlisch score, while not bad music in and of itself, (at least at the screening I attended) was a huge distraction. In keeping with the rest of the film it is a 70s era throwback, but it is overbearingly loud, and does not work to compliment the film, but rather distracts from it. It almost inspires the feeling that you are attending a film of one kind and a disparate concert, and that everybody is trying to make it work, but it just doesn't.

The Informant! is an interesting movie, it may even be an engaging movie, however it is not a satisfying movie. There is plenty to like but, unfortunately, the film disappoints.

The Informant! is in theaters now.