Movie Review Rewind: The Informant! (2009)

Brandon Vick flips the calendar back to 2009 for a look at Matt Damon in The Informant.

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The Informant! is a funny and tragic film that has a great actor in front of the camera and a great director behind it. This is the third film that I have seen this year from Steven Soderbergh. His dedication showed in Che earlier this year and he made a film that is up close and personal in The Girlfriend Experience. And in this film, he uses his craft to tell a true story but in a very comedic way.

This true story is about Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), who is an intelligent man working his way up the corporate ladder at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Illinois in the 1990s. He became the highest-ranked executive to turn whistleblower in American history by blowing the whistle on his company’s price fixing scam. Mark was considered a hero. He was bipolar as well, but he was seen as a hero nonetheless. He ended up serving more time in prison than the guys he took down. Now how could that happen?

What is so smart about this film is it makes you think you know Whitacre and you know how this film will turn out but you do not. You have no idea. The good guys and bad guys are hard to spot, and the guy you might can relate to is not who you think he is. Whitacre is smart, but so smart he’s dumb. It appears he does not know what he’s getting himself into or the trouble he may face.

Never has Damon played a character like this and he pulls it off nicely. He acts and looks like a nerd that you would not want to spend a weekend with no matter what the circumstances were. Damon seems to really enjoy this role and dove right in to it. The hair, mustache, and the weight gain is all a part of Damon transforming into Whitacre and forgetting all about Jason Bourne.

Damon plays a guy that exists, but raises the bar by adding humor and sympathy to the character. Whitacre appears so innocent and blind to things around him, and always seems so positive about any situation he is put in to. This where the comedy really happens. It is the way Whitacre handles each situation and the rules he breaks without ever realizing it. On top of that, the audience gets to go inside the head of Whitacre by hearing some of his thoughts. Thoughts that no one else may ever have in their life.

I praise Damon for his passion for this role and I have never seen him bring so much to a character and completely disappear in becoming a very unique, odd individual. However, Soderbergh must get some credit as well. He adds his touch to this film and really lets Damon do his thing. Soderbergh has control of this film and how he wants it to come across. It is a true tale, but Soderbergh went in the direction of mixing facts with humor and it works. But this film goes deeper than that. There is much more to the story and to Whitacre than meets the eye. The longer the film goes, the more uncertain you are about Whitacre and what he has been doing all along.

The Informant! is a great film that should be seen for many reasons, but if I had to name just one it would be one name: Matt Damon. Soderbergh is great, but Damon brings so much to this film and you cannot help but cheer for the risk he took and how well it came across. This film delivers a story that really happened, but has the freedom to run with it and make it better, more entertaining, funny, and intelligent.

Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.

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