The Informant! Reviews

This movie starts with a disclaimer "Although the movie is based on true events but some of them are dramatized".
And i was thinking, this is the worst way to start a movie, i mean we all know that the default status of movies based on true events are dramatized, so you don't have to reminds us of that, it's like saying, "hey, you know what, not all of the events in this movie are real", i'm like "what the fuck i'm watching it for?".
Anyway let's just ignore this, i'm coming back to it later.
This movie is based on a book, and it's a reminder also that not all books should be adapted into a motion picture, reason being is that this movie isn't interesting in the slightest, the story is so boring and the characters are so dull, and there's also a confusing narration done by Matt Damon, the reason why it's confusing because it has absolutely nothing to do with what's happening in the movie, it's like random trivia, i'll give you an example, Matt Damon was meeting a bunch of Japanese for a business and here's the narration during the scene "I like my hands, i think it's the best part of my body, i really think that my hands improve my social skills, also my eye contact" and i was like "What the fuck is that have to do with anything?".
I actually thought that (for the first hour and a half) Steven Soderbergh
realize the movie was boring so he decided to install these random narrations to make it better.
Actual Review
It's the story of Mark Whitacre, a bio-chemist (or something like that) and he works for a lysine developing company called ADM, and he make up a lie about a Japanese guy blackmailing him for 10 millions (The Japanese guy knows how to destroy a virus that ADM have), the reason why Mark is making this thing up is because he want's the money, so ADM decided not to trust him and hire FBI agents to investigate, and then Mark starts working for the FBI (Voluntary) for 3 years with no pressure from the FBI, Mark start Exposing ADM secrets and fraud and the fact that they raise prices in the U.S by cooperating with other competitive companies (called price fixing), and Mark actually think that because he's exposing the company he works for, the FBI will appreciate that and will make him CEO of ADM because he's the good guy, even though he participate in these practices (price fixing is illegal).

So after a really, really long 1 and a half hours, you start realizing that Mark is really, really stupid, i mean he can't be serious, he thinks ADM is not going to fire him and he's going to be CEO, so you start thinking that this movie is unbelievable, because no-one can be that stupid, but then you remember a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie saying that the movie is dramatized, so you start wondering, why i'm watching this? this seems unrealistic and i'm not having fun at all, that's why i said that this movie is very boring, the only thing that lift this movie is the incredible performance by Matt Damon, that's it.

Turn out that everything Mark says is a lie, and he's bipolar and involved in so many frauds and embezzlement that even the FBI turn their back on him and sue him along with ADM, and he end up spending 9 years in prison.

And the narration, is actually his Bi-polar disease speaking to him, which means that what he was saying is what he was thinking during these events, so how's that for a very long two hours?, i'll tell you, it was bad.

Normally i will go with 4 out of 10 but Matt Damon performance was awesome, and i'm not saying it's a terrible movie, i'm just saying that not all true stories should be adapted into motion pictures, take the movie 'Boy's don't cry' as an example, it is based on a true story but it was boring as hell, which is exactly like this.

*VERY LONG/SPOLIERS*

"It's very difficult to tell when Mr. Whitacre is telling the truth."

Watching Mark spin his webs is a lot like watching a little kid playing mind games with his parents. He's really a master of word-games, a real lord of lying, and he really has made lying his art-form, not unlike Holden Caulfield, actually. And that's why this movie is so funny and fun to watch, I've watched it a bunch of times, and it's basically because of Mark, and how loveably immature he is.

As for the broader picture, well, the world is very corrupt, and people know that, but it's still very different from how people think it is. It's a different kind of corrupt. Take two examples:

First, a big-shot from the company, Mick Andreas, talking with his cronies after the big FBI raid. He's very confident: he says, basically, nothing will come of it. It will be 'a ten year thing for the lawyers' but it wouldn't inconvience them '...maybe a fine. I'm telling you that's all this will be.' The average guy's gut reaction will be, I think--yeah, it's all fixed, you know, the government, the lawyers, the big business, yeah, they've got it all worked out, it'll be nothing, maybe a fine. Well, Mick Andreas goes to jail.

And again: Mark and his wife Ginger (who's very supportive of her husband, and pretty well looked after by him too) are on TV, talking about how Mark allegedly got ruffed up by a couple thugs who told him to keep quiet about things. Mark--who routinely worsens his position by talking to the press when he should keep his mouth shut, and who says at one point, "it feels good to talk"-- now blames his current problems on Brian Shepard, one of the guys with the FBI he used to work with when he was a co-operating witness. Mark tells the reporter who's interviewing him (or whom he's using to get an interview) that Brian Shepard/the FBI are to blame for all his troubles, and implies that they sent the mafia goons to ruff him up. His wife Ginger adds, "people need to understand--that the FBI is the same thing (as the mafia)". Brian Shepard is watching all this on TV, in civilian clothes, in some sort of diner. He looks disappointed; he can tell it's all a lie. The audience does too: Mark scuffed up his own clothes, and then told his wife that he got attacked, like a little kid inventing a story as to why he didn't do his homework.

It's hard to generalize, but basically, people are as corrupt as ever, but people are also not really convinced by people's lame excuses as to why they're corrupt. For example, Mark ineptly and ineffectively tries to explain away his theft of millions of dollars by saying that everyone else at the company was doing it too--even after previously protraying himself as the "white hat" because he was helping the FBI shoot down fellow co-workers he didn't like... Amusingly, Mark even told co-workers that he did like that the raid was coming, and when the FBI find out about it, and the agents, Brian and Bob, who are running him, confront him about it: Bob Herndon sternly tells Mark, brushinging aside his lame excuses, "You know that what you did in our eyes was wrong. It was supposed to be a secret." Mark often finds that he's fooling no-one, and yet, he is, at the same time, often given something more like indulgent coddling than punishment. Brian ends the conversation on a lame note, by reminding him that Mark has to get his own lawyer, and not rely on one provided for, and paid for, by the company. Mark replies irritably, "I know about the lawyers, Brian!" and it sounds not unlike a child arguing with an over-protective mother.

People are just as corrupt as ever, but also alot less satisfied with the lame excuses of yesteryear: maybe my favorite example is when Mark's second (or wait, third, no wait, fourth) lawyer, a real hack, who Mark likes, tells government representatives that Mark "has tapes that the government doesn't want us to hear"--as if the Department of Justice guys weren't, on some level, "the government"--and that he has a letter from the guy's shrink "which exonerates my client of all wrong-doing." Too bad it was a forged letter.

Explaining all of it makes it sounds painful, because it's a messed-up world, but it's pretty funny watching it unfold, especially through the eyes of an artful liar, who spends most of time hanging out with other liars....like the hotshot lawyer who first finds out about Mark's theft/fraud, which he uses to distract the government from his own clients and their own, equally real, theft and fraud. Interestingly, he claims to have "sworn testimony" from a company Mark had received a contract from that they had never received the contract, and that the signature was a forgery. ("He's a fucking forger!" Mick Andreas had said in mock-surprise, as though he were a "white hat" himself.) But later, it is mentioned that this company (it sounded like "Nordcron Kinney", although I've not seen how it's spelled) was a shell company created by Mark--well, he had one of his friends create it--so they could issue phony invoices that could be collected on, and, via money laundering, funnelled back to Mark and his family. So, if the company did not exist, and did not have any real employees, how did the hotshot lawyer get his "sworn testimony" that the invoice was fake?

And let's not forget another very interesting scene, this one between Shepard and Herndon and their FBI superiors, after it's been revealed that Mark was stealing money from his company while he was working with the FBI to prove that his company was engaged in fraud. (The hotshot lawyer claimed that this had happened "with the full knowledge and complicity" of the agents, even though he had no idea if they did know or not, and in fact, they had no idea.) The FBI brass say, basically, it's not if you guys knew or not, it's why didn't you know? Herndon dismisses this--the only thing that matters is whether there was fraud in the company. No, he's told, because now they're investigating the informant, not the company; Whitacre stole money, so he breached his agreement with the government. The agents seem to think that they're all falling for a trap being laid for them, and Herdon asks bitterly, "Who's counting the money over there if they can lose a couple million for a few years, and then find it in a couple of hours?"--which is, on one level, very perceptive, and yet also indicative of a sort of tunnel vision--it's the company's fault, because we got evidence against them (even if it was with our tainted guy), while it can't be our guy's fault because we got good evidence from him and we know him personally (even if we didn't screen him properly). Also, Shepard asks jadedly "I thought the FBI never hung a witness out to dry?" to which he is answered, "He's not a witness anymore; he's a target." Which is, on one level, exactly how people normally act when betrayed, and on another level--it's a bureaucrat playing with words.

That might sounds confusing, but you don't have to work everything out, unless you're a nut like me who's seen it fifty times. It's really a fun movie to watch, not least because of Matt Damon's really fucking amazing performance.

"I know you're trying to protect your friend Mark...but your story doesn't seem true."

"You're right. It's not true."

......................~~~~~

"But Joseph did NOT...."

"You're right. It's not true."

Lately, I've been thinking even worse of Matt Damon than I make it my habit it do.

It's not possible to explain in prose.

The new buildings have a quality of 'collapsing' in them, no matter how sturdy they are, because they are really *old* buildings, and not the good old kind....

"Here live the blind
who believe what they see
and the deaf
who believe what they hear."

And a little fool, characteristic of his country.

(How unfortunate are they, in a way, who *do* the work-- they are not like those others, who *said* that they did it....)

"....roll after roll
length after length
in woodchip wallpaper...."

Roll after roll after goddamn fucking roll.

"lone tenants stand around
observing the walls with frowns"

And they are so poor that they drive expensive German cars, having put Gogol out on the streets, and Mozart in an early grave.... because even poor folk make art, and East Berliners.

"searching row by row
looking for printing and spelling mistakes
they couldn't even decipher their own names"

Sometimes Schnicklgruber, sometimes.... *Schindlerism*!

And deaf to the words that only the fey folk can write....

("One two three four five six seven,
All good children go to heaven.")

........ And, and, and.....

No! Because! because! because!

(No! Because-- because you must not take their advice! Because, because, because! Because-- that! THAT!)

..... And.....

"....here are stored errors, which belong to the firm
and with which they tile the floors
upon these none may tread."

Crimes, "for", somebody a bit like you, maybe.... and about which you may nothing say, man.

(Watch the commercial. Shut up. It's all for you-- God damn you! Even I don't like you, what do you think any-body else would care, if it weren't for me! Do you think that the East-Berliners, eh?)

(What kindness!)

"here lives the architect
immersed in his plan of
this building crammed with ideas
it stretches from funda- to firmament
and from it`s foundations to the firm."

Smiling exactly like the American who has oft been to Netherfield Park.

(Such innocence!)

".... for better orientation."

What! We just want better orientation!

(And what could be wrong with THAT!)

And, then, friend, let me tell you what he did....

And then.... here is what you must have done.... or God save you....

("My name is Patton Oswalt, and I'm extremely pissed at you right now, you filthy little liar....")

Lately, I've been thinking even worse of Matt Damon than I make it my habit it do.

People have a way of leading you to who they are.... they make lists....

And, in Illinois, right-- It's not even as bad there.

Maybe they should have called it, 'Downfall'.

If you really think about that, you might learn something upsetting.

(WHY DO YOU KEEP LYING.)

(9/10)

Honestly, I really wonder how I thought it would be a cool movie to watch with my wife at the movie theater. I guess the whole thing was actually poorly advertised since I first thought it would be more a straightforward thriller. On the other hand, it is such a weird picture, so how can you sell it to any audience? Anyway, even though it was something really different than I expected, I still liked it but it is definitely not for everyone (my wife eventually fell asleep for example...). Basically, it was another rather experimental feature directed by Soderbergh and there was this weird combination of styles which I found actualy rather bewildering but also really intriguing. On top of that, Matt Damon was just amazing and I do believe that he gave here one of his most underrated performances. If you like weird movies, maybe this is for you or maybe you won't dig it all. To be honest, aftewards, you seriously wonder what Soderbergh tried to achieve here but it's a feeling you get very often when watching his work. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really great whatsoever, I think it is still worth a look, if only for Matt Damon's impressive performance.

"Well, there you have it, from Mark Whitacre, Ph.D. You know what the Ph.D. stands for, don't you? Piled higher and deeper."

While the marketing squad at Warner Brothers promoted The Informant! as a loony comedy set within the corporate environment, the trailers are in fact quite misleading. Rather than playing the material as a straightforward mainstream comedy, director Steven Soderbergh has crafted a sophisticated yet disappointingly uneven dark comedy that's unable to attain a smooth rhythm as the story progresses.

The Informant! is the semi-true, semi-fanciful account of Mark Whitacre (Damon), who worked in upper management for a lysine developing company called ADM (Archer Daniels Midland). When he becomes uneasy about a price-fixing scheme at ADM, Mark reveals his concerns to the FBI and agrees to act as an informant to provide evidence to bring the company down. But questions soon begin to emerge. What is Mark getting out of his whistle-blowing? Is he truly a clean and reliable witness, like he initially seems? Uncovering the mysteries regarding Mark and his motives soon becomes of more interest to the FBI than ADM's illegal activities.

To be sure, The Informant! is predominantly a comedy, but it's a specific type of comedy that's difficult to pinpoint. More than anything, the movie's tone is funny - it has an oddball sensibility, a peculiar way of looking at things, and an absurd perspective of Whitacre and the quicksand he proudly matches into. Soderbergh is too sophisticated a filmmaker to simply play the material as a broad, commercial comedy. Instead, the humour is fundamentally dark and the laughs are generated through clever writing, though the filmmakers never lose the sense that the story is essentially a tragedy. However the gambit is not entirely successful, partially because the tricky tightrope walk between comedy and pathos makes the film feel hamstrung at times when it should be cut loose instead. The pacing simply isn't tight enough as well. Even at about 100 minutes, the film lingers for at least a quarter of an hour too long. If the editing had been more aggressive, the picture would have been far stronger. As it is, the material feels stretched beyond its ideal length. If Soderbergh was aiming for a zippy film, he failed.

Soderbergh lensed The Informant! using a lot of the handheld, pseudo-documentary techniques he has been honing over the years. The film's colour scheme is of corporate browns and sickly oranges, providing the movie with the dull paleness of business life in Middle America. To Soderbergh's credit, he knew when to stick to less attention-grabbing compositions when solid storytelling and performances were all that was required to progress the narrative.
One of the greatest pleasures afforded by the movie is the score courtesy of composer Marvin Hamlisch; a music legend who hasn't gone near a motion picture since the late '90s. Hamlisch has created a witty combination of the kind of goofball music he provided for early Woody Allen comedies (think Bananas or Take the Money and Run) and the brand of action-danger-suspense tunes he cooked up for The Spy Who Loved Me. As a matter of fact, Hamlisch's music is slyly appropriate for Mark's character - like him, the score manages to be both disconnected and with it at the same time. The delightful score earned Hamlisch a Golden Globe nomination.

Submitting his best performance since 1998's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Matt Damon is almost unrecognisable as Mark Whitacre. With his spectacles, furry toupee, moustache and extra weight, Damon is as far from the lean-and-mean Jason Bourne as can be imagined. Additionally, the internal twistiness of the character is amusingly conveyed via earnest voiceover narration that perpetually suggests Whitacre is not always quite with it. While his narration occasionally just comments on the events currently unfolding onscreen, it more often reveals the peculiar randomness of his trail of thought, as well as his deluded inner fantasies (such as the way he constantly compares his dilemma to John Grisham and Michael Crichton novels). Though Damon provides the film's star power, his performance is more along the lines of something you'd expect from a focused character actor rather than a headliner.
Alongside Damon, Melanie Lynskey is wonderful as Mark's wife, as is Scott Bakula who nails the beleaguered sensibility required to pull off the role of Mark's primary FBI contact. In a stroke of genius, Soderbergh rounded out the cast with a selection of stand-ups and comic actors, including Joel McHale, Rick Overton, Bob Zany, Patton Oswalt, Tony Hale, Paul F. Thompkins and the Smothers Brothers.

All things considered, The Informant! never manages to catch fire the way that Soderbergh's best work did, and it lacks the infectious energy that made the Ocean's pictures such a hoot. It's hard to shake off the thought that Soderbergh should've simply settled on one tone and ran with it. The material suggests an edge-of-your-seat nail-biter (even with Whitacre's strange disposition taken into consideration), and a world of comic possibilities lie within the concept of a deluded executive who uses one crime to cover another. If Soderbergh had gone one way, The Informant! could have been a smash. As it stands, it's an uneven experiment. But even so, the movie is at least worth checking out for Matt Damon's performance and a few good moments.

5.8/10