The Informant! (Warner Brothers)
Matt Damon Piles On the Pounds and Turns Up the Talent
Matt Damon is at his most talented in the new film The Informant! He added about forty pounds to his lean, mean frame to be convincing as Mark Whitacre, a real lilfe informant for the FBI. Though he looks porky, Damons acting talent is razor sharp and this role could pave his way to the Academy Award stage next year.
Mark Whitacre (Damon) is an executive with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. One day he goes to the FBI and lays out information he has about corruption within the company. Agents Shepherd (Scott Bakula) and Hendon (Joel McHale) get him to wear a wire so that they can corroborate his statements.
Whitacre really gets into the spy thing and comes up with more information for the Feds. He tapes conversations and even helps with videos of the meetings where illegalities are discussed. But as the case moves forward some inconsistencies began to emerge and Whitacre finds himself fighting to save himself.
Damon is amazing as Whitacre and has his idiosyncrasies down pat. He is totally believable even when his character is acting unbelievably. With the extra pounds and a half-hearted wig he is far from his look as Bourne, but that is as it should be.
Melanie Lynskey also makes an impression as Whitacres wife Ginger. You are never sure if Ginger is a pawn for Whitacres ambitions or a force that goads him to his undoing.
Something to remember when you see the film, at two different times in the movie I thought I spied an actor who looked like Dickie Smothers. I dismissed it however in my mind as ridiculous. Luckily I stayed through the credits and found that both Tommy and Dickie Smothers are in the film. Look for them!
The film is rated R for profanity.
The musical score for this movie is by Marvin Hamlisch and it is a good one. We havent had a full Hamlisch musical score in years and it is good to have him back. It was also good to see Scott Bakula back on the big screen as well as the Smothers Brothers.
As good as the acting is in this film, it is not a totally enjoyable movie. Director Steven Soderberghs pacing of the plot is too tedious. It seems to take forever for the movie to get going and when it does it stays confusing up till the end and beyond. The confusion regarding the Whitacre character is a key plot element but surely it didnt have to be as oblique as it was.
The movie is worth seeing for Damons superb acting skills but dont go expecting to be knocked over by the plot. It is an interesting story but one that is told in a fairly uninteresting way.
I scored The Informant! a tell all 6 out of 10.
