The Informant

J: When was the last time you sat in a darkened theater laughing at someone who is so psychologically impaired that it borders on pathological? Well, get ready to have your funny bone tweaked by Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) in “The Informant” because he truly puts the fun in dysfunctional.

Steven Soderbergh directed this romp through the biggest whistleblower case in Justice Department history. It is a dark comedy that uses the main character’s non-sequiturs as the illustration of his decent into madness as a result of the pressures of being a mole for the FBI. The trick is extremely effective – you find yourself scratching your head and wondering how anyone could possibly be thinking about the size of their hands as they walk into a price fixing meeting wired to the teeth. You can’t help but laugh.

The Informant is based on the book of the same name by Attorney James Lieber that tells the story of Whitacre’s decision to blow the whistle on Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and their efforts to fix the global price of lysine. Unfortunately, he also happens to be engaging in a little corporate hanky-panky himself. As the pressures of the three years of being a mole within the organization begin to build, Whitacre slips further into bipolar mania until he can’t tell his facts from his fantasies. The FBI agents, Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) and Dean Paisley (Joel McHale) stand helplessly by while Whitacre first flirts with giving away the whole investigation with his wide-eyed wonderment at how the FBI has rigged their surveillance (he stares at the lamp in the hotel room where the bug is hidden with childlike wonder) and then as their case slips away because of Whitacre’s ever changing account of what is happening. Whitacre, meanwhile, is convinced that he will be hailed as an everyman hero and given the position of CEO of ADM pretty much because he will be the last man standing after the Justice Department gets through with ADM – even as the Justice lawyers point out to him that the “corporate landscape may change a bit” for him. But he cluelessly forges ahead with his equally clueless wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey) at his side. As a stay at home mother, she is comfortable with their surroundings even as she questions why her husband needs six cars in the garage – many of them top end sports cars. It is, however, at her urging that he goes to the FBI and offers his service.

The Informant gives one the chance to just sit and be entertained. You don’t have to divine the motives or guess who the real villain is or when the twist will come. It is an extremely straightforward and uncomplicatedly funny movie. With a dash of sixties era “gee-gosh-willy”, even though it happens in the mid-1990’s, provided by Whitacre and his wife this is just an all around enjoyable movie. Please do not feel guilty about laughing – I’m pretty sure that’s the point!

K: Insanely funny! What a comedy of errors - unfortunately it's true! *whispers* "I see stupid people. They're everywhere!"