Blu-ray Review – The Informant!

Released tomorrow (Monday 29th March), The Informant! stars a very portly Matt Damon in the role of Mark Whitacre, the highest-ranked executive to ever turn whistle blower in US history.

Whiteacre, a vice president of an agri-business with a Ph.D in Biochemistry, and a $300,000 per year salary, famously turned FBI informant in 1992 when he alerted the authorities to price-fixing activities between his employer, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and various other agri-businesses worldwide.  Whitacre confessed to meeting “competitors” on behalf of ADM and fixing the price of Lysine in what was the largest case of its kind at the time.  He named all company executives involved, including himself and helped the FBI by gathering hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes of the price-fixing agreements taking place.

Guaranteed no immunity from prosecution, Whitacre freely assisted the authorities and went the extra mile to gather the evidence they needed to sink ADM.  It was hoped that his assistance would reflect well on him when the investigation reached it’s culmination and he expected to be left to run ADM as the only remaining qualified person.  That is until it was found he had skimmed roughly $9 million from ADM during the two and half years he was assisting the FBI, in what he called an accepted practice.

Whiteacre was sentenced to a prison term three times longer than those of the persons he helped to convict and THAT is what makes this series of events utterly priceless.

You might think I’ve just told you the whole story but these are just the facts.  The facts of what many people can’t believe is a true story.  While brilliant and hilarious in their own right, the facts of this tale are nothing compared to Matt Damon’s wonderful portrayal of the genuine but naive, Mark Whiteacre. 

Damon’s Whiteacre is oddly loveable and truly funny.  He is just unbelievable.  You can’t help but feel for his innocent nature until you’re snapped out of it by a monumentally stupid act.  Couple this with the equally brilliant performance of Scott Bakula, who plays FBI Agent Brian Shepard, the officer in charge of the price-fixing investigation, and you have yourself a comedy pairing. 

Shepard is generally a serious kind of guy until Whiteacre’s behaviour leads him to progress further and further into disbelief.  Bakula shoots numerous looks throughout the movie that just had me in stitches.  Shepard clearly can’t believe his ears a lot of the time and Bakula hammers this home with comedy impact in a simple movement of his eyes.

Steven Soderbergh has given The Informant! a nineties tint deeply enhanced by crap bright-coloured chyrons throughout.  The movie feels like there should be a lot more content, like Soderbergh had to cut more than he wanted to, as some elements of Whiteacre’s story are very quickly covered, but it’s nothing that can’t be lived with.  I just felt at times that I wanted to know just a little bit more.  Nonetheless, I soon forgot what I wanted when I laughed by head off at Whiteacre’s next act of stupidity.

The Informant! is a sleek typical-Soderbergh movie with subject matter that appears too incredible to be true.  A truly funny tale of the larger than life character of Whitacre and his rapid descent from normality.  Fans of movies like Catch me if you Can and Ocean’s 11 will love the style of the film and everyone should love Matt Damon’s performance.  I don’t think I’ve spent the duration of a movie in complete disbelief before this one.  This is definitely one to get your hands on this week for you won’t be disappointed. 

I give it 4 tape machines out of 5 for being bloody funny.