The Informant! is Soderbergh in larky mode, which in its sterility has recently become virtually indistinguishable from his cerebral mode.
The Informant! (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:191
Fresh:146
Rotten:45
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: A charismatic turn by star Matt Damon and a consistently ironic tone boost this quietly funny satire about a corporate whistle-blower.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for language
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:20-11-2009
Synopsis:
What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre (Matt Damon) suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company's...
What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre (Matt Damon) suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company's multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent.
Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account frustrates the agents (Scott Bakula and Joel McHale) and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's active imagination.
Academy AwardŽ winner Matt Damon ("Good Will Hunting," the "Bourne" movies) stars in "The Informant!," based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history. The film also stars Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Melanie Lynskey.
"The Informant!" is directed by Academy AwardŽ winner Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic") from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns, based on the book The Informant (A True Story), written by Kurt Eichenwald. The film is produced by Gregory Jacobs, Jennifer Fox, Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein and Kurt Eichenwald. George Clooney, Jeff Skoll and Michael London served as executive producers, with Michael Polaire co-producing.
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes production designer Doug Meerdink, editor Stephen Mirrione and costume designer Shoshana Rubin. The music is by multiple OscarŽ winner and nominee Marvin Hamlisch ("The Sting," "The Way We Were").
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Participant Media and Groundswell Productions, a Section Eight-Jaffe/Braunstein Enterprise, "The Informant!" --© Warner Bros
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey, Tony Hale, Thomas F. Wilson, Rick Overton, Tom Papa, Adam Paul, Paul F. Tompkins, Clancy Brown, Patton Oswalt
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Screenwriter: Scott Z. Burns
Producer: Gregory Jacobs, Jennifer Fox, Howard Braunstein, Kurt Eichenwald
Composer: Marvin Hamlisch
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Informant!
We'd love to sympathize with Mark Whitacre if he weren't such a crook.
The Informant! was worth the weight gain for Matt Damon as he delivers what's easily his best performance to date.
Matt Damon is a constant churn of gee-whiz earnestness, righteous indignation, nervous exasperation and self-aggrandizing swagger...
Damon gives one of the best performances of his career here, a sneak-up-on-you the-dupe-as-duper narrator.
Despite (or because of) his gaining 30 pounds for the role--half of which weight may be from his rug--Matt Damon is in top form.
While this film fits squarely into Soderbergh's recurrent goal of ignoring audience interest when possible, that's the only area in which it can be considered a success.
The film's casting is spot on. Damon is delightful playing someone who is a terrible actor. Wearing a ghastly muffin-shaped hairdo, an ill-advised mustache and 30 extra pounds around his waist, he's hardly recognizable as lethal Jason Bourne.
The Informant! is a martini neither shaken nor stirred. It's neat, dry and straight-up hilarious.
Despite an appealing central performance from Matt Damon, disguised in a mustache and complicated swoop of hair, The Informant! feels like a jumble of ideas rather than a concerted whole.
Soderbergh takes a deadly serious news story and amplifies and colors it to the point of outrageousness. The results aren't always consistent, but they are undeniably compelling.
The Informant! is too clever by half -- and yet, at the same time, not quite as smart as it thinks.
Repetitive to the point of supreme annoyance, The Informant! would have been better informed with a page-one rewrite.
Director Steven Soderbergh tries too hard to force his tone on the material. There's already enough goofiness here.
Another creative addition to Steven Soderbergh's impressive collection of adventuresome films.
Matt Damon's amusing performance in this wild true story of an unstable corporate whistleblower is compromised by Steven Soderbergh's heavy-handed direction.
The Informant! is a provocative character study on a brainy, but utterly complicated and persistently distracted, executive who probably gets confused by which sock should go on the right foot. Soderbergh gets a rise out of his scenery, recreating
Entertaining, but a bit glib, verging on disposable. But Damon saves it with his knockout performance.
stretches the boundaries of credibility while creating a movie that mocks most of the tenets of the genres he's working in.
Latest News for The Informant!
September 18, 2009:
Scott Bakula Talks The Informant! ![]()
He's currently in "The Informant!" but Collider had plenty of other stuff to ask Scott Bakula about during their interview -- including, of course, his stint on "Quantum Leap." More...
September 17, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Jennifer's Body Is Hot, But The Movie Isn't
This week at the movies, we've got a possessed student body (Jennifer's Body, starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried); an oddball snitch (The Informant!, starring Matt Damon and... More...
September 09, 2009:
click for trailer and preview ![]()
More...
July 12, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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