Movie Review: The Informant!

*This review is 100% USDA certified Spoiler-free!

I enjoy being "dragged" to movies (because I enjoy it, there usually isn't much resistance) because I often see movies I wouldn't otherwise, and sometimes it really works out. The Informant! is a perfect example. Ocean's aside, I usually give Steven Soderbergh films a wide berth. 

Yesterday I was "dragged" to see The Informant!, starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, an executive at Archer Daniels Midland, a bunch of TV actors (ranging from sitcoms to Star Trek), and Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. The cast is certainly eclectic, but along with Damon's ability to lose himself in the role helps to reinforce the idea that none of these people are particularly extraordinary, but the situation they find themselves in is a fantastic one to be sure.

A rare comedy based on a true story, and perhaps even rarer, a comedy based on white collar crime (the only other one being Office Space, though I find Boiler Room to be pretty funny) and rarer still, a discussion of price fixing outside the economic classroom. 

As the audience gets pulled further and further into Whitacre's deception (and layers thereof), one can't help but feel sorry for the man, and Soderbergh is deft at making no one in the movie seem like a particularly bad guy, and using an unreliable narrator to the fullest effect. 

This is a guy who believes he's a spy, and the voice-over insights into Whitacre's mind (polar bears have black noses) and the music used both effectively serve to help the audience understand the protagonists' mind set. 

In short, this movie reminds me of what would have happened if the Cohen Brothers had directed Catch Me If You Can. It's smart even if the characters aren't, and it makes the protagonist sympathetic but not overly so. 

Highly recommended. 

Also, there is a book, and This American Life did a show about Whitacre.