There is something so pitiable about biochemist Mark Whitacre.
Maybe it’s the touch of aw-shucks innocence from the Midwestern corporate up and comer. An executive at lysine producing company Archer Daniels Midland(ADM), with a Cinderella childhood, a loving family, and an honest nature, Whitacre (played by Matt Damon) is the easy to go-to good guy, the person to root for. This character set-up only makes his unraveling that much richer.
Because even the “good” guys who whistleblow on a large,powerful agri-corporation can take a fall too, and not just because their employer is the subject of an intense criminal investigation at their behest. While FBI agents, played by the sardonic Joel McHale and the empathetic Scott Bakula, are hurriedly throwing themselves into an over two year investigation of ADM’s fixed pricing operation based solely on Whitacre’s testimony and an over 200 videotape collection supplemented by Whitacre showing the price-fixing meetings, Whitacre is unsuspectingly furnishing his stories with a little something extra.
But what that is would ruin the twist that comes about halfway through the movie, in a small and simply decorated hotel room in Decatur,Illinois. Whitacre, a more serious and bipolar Johnny English figure, projects his informant or “spy” saavy to be much greater than it is, even to the extent that he believes he’s beaten a polygraph test.And this falsely believed skill escalates Whitacre into an avalanche of problems, tarnishing an otherwise likeable image.Until Whitacre’s delusion or greed resurfaces again.And again.And again.
It’s enough to make the viewer groan in exasperation or laugh wildly, as with each forthcoming detail,Whitacre develops into an untrusting absurdity, possibly unaware of the large grave he is recklessly digging himself in. Damon plays this role beautifully, never forfeiting humor and the inanity of his character in even the most poignantly tragic and serious scenes. Sometimes this makes watching a bit unbearable-how could someone ever think they could get away with what Whitacre is trying to pull off? But perhaps that’s the deliciousness of it all, because Whitacre(or “agent 0014″, as he christens himself) never for a second assumes anything but a hero persona,believing himself to be a man to be remembered and watched.Although he is daring in his commendable undercover work for the government agency, he still manages to let it get to his head in the worst way.He ignores the advice of his lawyers and the FBI without abandon, courting the press and enthusiastically searching for his image in the nightly news. Here his perfectly coiffed wife and mother of their children, Ginger(Melanie Lynskey), puts on an amazing front, standing by her husband without question.It is this lack of questioning that distances Ginger from the husband she thought she knew, and whether she’s crying at the inanity of the whole situation or doggedly supporting her husband, she’s an amazing supporting character.
Here too Whitacre’s lawyers make some particularly memorable appearances, defending their client in public while chastising him with rolled eyes behind office doors. And Arrested Development fans will notedly be praising Tony Hale’s(“Hey Hermano”) portrayal of a lawyer increasingly fed up with the antics his client is pulling and the surprisies and secrets that keep popping up from anyone but Whitacre. Although he is an adept advocate that lightens the sentence for Whitacre, convincing the FBI that his client made their case, his reward is thanklessness from Whitacre, who promptly fires him at the mention of any punishment. The enormity of the situation really is best expressed through the faces of everyone surrounding Whitacre-Hale’s gaping mouth that conveys six shades of frustration, McHale’s pointed stare of disbelief, and Ginger’s cries of incredulity.
Where the movie fails is in it’s attempt to have Whitacre narrate randomly throughout the film.Maybe director Steven Soderbergh wanted to show the character’s inability to realize the gravity of the events being played out, with lighthearted dialogue that really had nothing to do with the scene at hand.But this never really gives the viewer a good glimpse into Whitacre’s character, something that is much easier to see when he’s interacting with his former cohorts at ADM, or eating Chinese with the FBI agents he’s grown close to during the investigation. There are multiple points in the film when the dialogue actually overtakes or begins when the scene itself is good enough to sustain the viewer’s interest, and many people came out of the theater wishing they could have heard the end of a this conversation,or what that one character was saying so emphatically.
The pacing might also give some viewers ticket buyer’s remorse.It’s slow and methodical, but that really just allows the viewer a thinking experience, and anything that they glean early or catch onto in the film that is revealed later makes it seem like a challenge and well worth the wait. The film doesn’t give anything away early on, and the viewer’s patience is rewarded at the ending when they realize that Whitacre,in a tougher situation than the main culprits of ADM’s price fixing scheme, still has the loyalty of the FBI agents who seemingly turned their back on him near the end.
The Informant! ‘s intrigue should lie with the actors that built the film.Damon’s stellar depiction of a man in over his head while simultaneously exposing a Fortune 500 company in a daring undercover operation is masterful, and really adds something that an inspiring-but-otherwise-boring picture needed.Sure, the movie can get slow at times, but the payoff at the end is worth it.Whitacre is a confused and bumbling hero, the heart of an enormous antitrust case that still is feeling the effects of a pervasive price fixing problem.
Related articles:
- The Infallible District 9 (Movie Review)
- ‘Planet in Peril’ (Movie Review)
- Indie Movie Serves up Visions of Italy and Innocence in Genova
- Intl. Review: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
- Advance Review – ‘Terminator: Salvation’: A Surprisingly Decent Action Romp into the Future