 Director Steven Soderbergh gained public awareness with his direction of Julia Roberts to a best actress Oscar® for “Erin Brockovich” (2000) and the same year won a best director Oscar® for “Traffic”! The primary factor, his directorial talent of subliminally guiding the story through strong character nuances as the major elements are unfolding. Directing the three Ocean movies (Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004), and Ocean's Thirteen (2007) followed, with Matt Damon as one of the stars. Matt Damon’s portrayal of Jason Bourne in three films established him as an in-depth action actor with the films becoming my all time favorites for suspense thrillers. While working with Matt Damon on the Ocean movies, Steven Soderbergh became aware of his wide range as an actor and says that Matt Damon was his first and only choice for the role of the exceptionally bright, bipolar whistleblower in “The Informant!”…
%20Director%20STEVEN%20SODERBERGH%20and%20MATT%20DAMON.jpg) Based on the true story and Kurt Eichenwald’s 2000 book, the informant is Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon). He’s a high level executive at ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) headquartered in Illinois. Bright, with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and on the fast track, Whitacre has apparitions of rising to the top by being the ‘last man standing’. His plan, expose the company’s international price fixing tactics, becoming the highest ranked executive in U.S. business history to blow the whistle on a company! It’s a good plan, and the FBI agreeing that it has merit, for several years starting in 1992 gathered hundreds of hours of videotape and audio recordings of international meetings, with Whitacre’s help. All is well until slowly but certainly a fact; inconsistencies’ become apparent, relating to the clarity of Whitacre’s involvement!
%20SCOTT%20BAKULA%20as%20FBI%20Special%20Agent%20Brian%20Shepard,%20%20JOEL%20McHALE%20as%20FBI%20Special%20Agent%20Bob%20Herndon%20and%20MATT%20DAMON%20as%20Mark%20Whitacre.jpg) “The Informant!” moves briskly along with a narrative that’s not used in the usual way of adding details or providing additional insight. In this movie, the narrative is Whitacre’s thoughts, and after a few moments in, as he goes about his life, we realize those thoughts relate directly to his usual activities. Some thoughts have no relationship at all to the reality, only to what he perceives it to be. At other times, they have no relationship at all to any of the events in his life. At the helm, Steven Soderbergh carefully orchestrates the ingredients to present an intriguing story, while Matt Damon, with an extra 30 pounds he put on for the role, completely sheds any similarities to any of his past performances. He gives us the character of Marc Whitacre that on one level we’re pulling for him, on another from his thoughts, we know he has serious issues. An early prediction, keep an eye on “The Informant!” at Oscar® time!
Starring Matt Damon, Lucas McHugh Carroll, Eddie Jemison, Scott Bakula, Scott Adsit, Ann Dowd, and Allan Havey.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh; written by Scott Z. Burns; Rated R for language. Warner Bro. Pictures release; Runtime: 108 minutes. |
