CINEMA: The Informant!

The one thing I never expected to say about a Steven Soderbergh film is that it was clunky, but there’s something clumsy and a bit lumbering about this good-natured drama that detracts from its good points.

It’s based on the true-life case of corporate whistle-blower Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon in hairpiece and moustache doing a William H. Macy impression) who promised to give the FBI all the information they wanted about his company’s price fixing, only he could never keep his story straight. It turned out Whitacre had been less than forthcoming with the truth and the more he revealed to the Feds the more they realised he’d not so much been lying to them, but he’d definitely not been telling the whole story. Whitacre had been more involved in the price fixing conspiracy than he’d let on and as the case stretched out over the months and then years, even his faithful and supportive wife (Melanie Lynskey) started to urge her husband to come clean.

Basically Whitacre was a fantasist who got off on the excitement of being, as he describes himself, ‘a James Bond’. He loved the hidden cameras and wires he used to secretly tape business meetings because they made him feel important and somehow dangerous and charismatic. In reality, he was a little man with dreams above his station.

Damon plays Whitacre with something of a comedy air which certainly makes the film entertaining but doesn’t really convince you he could ever have hoodwinked the Feds for so long, and that ultimately means the movie lacks the ring of authenticity that would make the audience really believe in it.