The Informant! (Saturday, September 19, 2009) (129)

It sometimes feels like director/writer/producer Steven Soderburgh makes six movies a year mixing big Hollywood films with the biggest stars with small (sometimes microscopic) pictures that are gritty and not always totally successful. Clearly that's an exaggeration - he has only directed about two movies a year since he did 'Out of Sight' (with the big box office draws George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez).

When looking at the list of these titles, there are several that are over-hyped, I think, and lack much substance (such as Erin 'They're Called Boobs, Ed' Brokovich, Traffic, Oceans Twelve, The Good German and the two Che movies) and several interesting, smart and unusual ones (such as The Limey, Ocean's Eleven, Solaris and the HBO K-Street show). Overall this is not a bad career. The Informant! (yes, the exclamation point is in the title) is probably the best of this group of good films. It's smart, very funny, entertaining and a totally fresh style.

The movie tells the true story of the rise and fall of Mark Whitacre, a whistle-blower for Archer Daniels Midland who in the early 1990s started working with the FBI to expose an international price-fixing ring on agri-chemicals. Whitacre is an enthusiastic, naive numb-skull who cooperates with the government in order to further his career (at ADM) by getting his bosses charged and arrested so he can take over the firm (at least that's his plan). He has a love of ostentatious cars and abstract floral-print ties, a wonderful moustache and a killer hair-piece. He's always optimistic and almost never says or does what the federal agents working with him want him to do. Ultimately, it turns out that his grand life-style is being paid for by a major embezzlement scheme he has going on where he steals from ADM and puts money in various accounts around the world. As he becomes the main witness in the government's case against ADM, he is also brought up on federal charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.

The movie works because Matt Damon is fantastic in the Whitacre role. His foolish, bright-eyed performance draws us in right away and makes us think he's a harmless dolt. He talks technical corn chemistry at the kitchen table with his family and seems to not understand how little the world cares about what he does. Soderburgh uses voice over one-line 'deep thought' non-sequiturs as he is in meetings with various people, suggesting that his mind is always moving and wrestling with mundane things - and probably not paying attention to what he should be concentrating on. He's a sad goof-ball and we really root for him early on. The exclamation point in the title is clearly from his point of view - he thinks it's faaaaaantastic that he's working with the government. He's the informant! The screenplay, by Scott Burns, is fresh and hilarious and brings to life a guy who could otherwise be a pitiful Decatur, Illinois suit.

The texture of the film overall is also fantastic. Everything from the costumes, makeup and art direction is perfect with that late-1980s, early-1990s post-fluorescent print aesthetic common in America. Damon's mustache and terrible wig are fantastic; his beige and grey suits are perfect; the convoy of high-end cars that he goes through over the course of the film are wonderful; the office and hotel interiors are perfect. All of these design elements establish an uncanny environment for the action.

Perhaps the most important element of the atmosphere is the brilliant score by Marvin Hamlisch. At times it's quirky and sounds like a 1970s sit-com, at times it's fast and active like a bad 1980s comedy (like Meatballs or The Cannonball Run). It's a mixture of the crappy albums found in thrift store record bins - Herb Alpert and the Benny Hill theme song. Wooop, wooop, wooop! It's a cliche that I hate, but here it's true: the score really does become an important character in the story.

The supporting actors are great here. Scott Bakula and Joel McHale are fantastic as the straight FBI agents who can't believe how stoopid and amazing Whitacre is at every turn. Whitacre's wife, played by Melanie Lynskey, is perfect as a simple Midwesterner with gigantic hair who always has dinner on the table for her husband and sticks with him even after his scheme is exposed.

This is a really fun and totally enjoyable movie. It's always interesting to me how Soderburgh is effective at making movies across the genre spectrum. He has certainly made some bad movies (like the Girlfriend Experience from earlier this year, or the Good German - which was a really terrible noir war film), but he should get credit for not being pigeon-holed into one category. This film stands as his best comedy (including the Ocean movies) and one of his best films over his career.

Stars: 3.5 of 4