wcbe: : The Informant! (2009-09-10)

"I'm the good guy in all this." Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon)

He's not. He's a liar. But he's a smart liar, a highly educated scientist, and family man. We do know he blew the price-fixing whistle on ag-giant Archer Daniels Midland in the early nineties. His story is told in The Informant! with a caveat about the film's own lack of truth.

Light is Director Steven Soderbergh's touch here, as he did with much more success in the Ocean's franchise: He emphasizes Mark Whitacre's seemingly na�ve voice-over narration about life and his own life while he may be committing egregious financial crimes against his own company. However Damon plays him so casually and simply, it's hard to know his guilt or innocence, his love or hatred of ADM.

The other players such as the FBI agents are clueless and bland, actually just as na�ve as Mark and therefore almost more unbelievable than he. I took much more pleasure in Mark Mann's Insider, starring Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand (not difficult to believe Damon used Crowe's whistleblower portrayal as a physical model (overweight, playing with his glasses, dorky). Crowe's real life whistleblower is serious and satisfying; Damon's is dull and unbelievable.

Damon admirably tries to portray the innocent corporate man who slowly reveals himself as dangerous, but the humorous angle mitigates against believability and sympathy, two essentials for audience experience.

Better Soderbergh stay with his successful rebel Erin Brokovich or take a lesson from the other Steven, Spielberg that is, who guided Leo DiCaprio as enjoyable imposter Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me if You Can. Or the delightful ensemble of another lie motif picture-- Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Or Coen brothers comedies such as Intolerable Cruelty.