Review: The Informant!

Grade: B

The Informant is a movie, based on a true story, about corporate fraud. It is based around a man, Mark Whitacare, who works in management for a lysine development company, ADM. At one point he starts getting blackmailed by a mysterious man over a virus that's losing the company money. ADM decides to bring in the FBI to overlook the matter and in the process, Whitacare decides to come clean about the company's habit of price fixing. He starts working with the FBI to help record meetings to get some solid evidence and really starts to think that he's a secret agent. After a while though, it is discovered that Mark Whitacare has his own secrets much deeper than anybody could have possibly known.

The Informant is directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Trilogy) and he did a great job. The movie takes place from the early to mid nineties. The movie looks very authentic and the camera work is great. The story was brilliant and very funny at times, but, at times it had a tendency to slow town quite a bit. It does manage to keep your interest the whole time though so at least there's that.

Matt Damon (Ocean's 11, The Bourne Identity) plays Mark Whitacare, an upper-management corporate body who appears to want to clear his conscience of the wrongs his company is doing. Damon was genius in this role. He did a wonderful job portraying the character's naivete and his obliviousness to how the real world works. Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Joel McHale (TV's The Soup) play FBI agents Brian Shepard and Bob Herndon. They both did great with these roles as they try to control Whitacare. Melanie Lynskey (Away We Go, TV's Two and a Half Men) plays Ginger Whitacare, Mark's wife. She is a good actress and really takes hold of this role and makes it her own. The movie also features Tom Papa, Tom Wilson, Ann Cusack, Patton Oswalt and Paul F. Tompkins.

This movie was very good and very enjoyable. It's actually really crazy to think that this all happened but at the same time it's not too surprising. I definitely recommend everybody give this movie a try, it is just plain fun to watch.

Great quote: "I haven't been completely honest with you. I'm gonna clear that all up when we get up there."