The Informant!

Despite the exclamation point next to the film's title, let me assure you I am far from enthusiastic about this movie. Not because of it was bad per say (I can't tip my hand this early in a review), but rather because there is no energy to the movie at all. That punctuation mark is probably the most invigorating thing the movie has going for it, which is disappointing because I thought the trailers showed a movie that would be a fun romp through corporate deceit. What I got instead was a light-hearted character study of a man who didn't deserve anything light hearted at all.

Someone turning informant on their company has never been a subject that I find particularly interesting (you guys really think The Insider is good?), and The Informant! really does nothing to change that. The movie just chugs along at a slow pace as we watch Matt Damon's Mark Whitacre get caught up in the whole process with the FBI. He goes on some trips, does some recording, and bumbles his way along, all the while failing to captivate the audience and convey why we should care about what we're watching. By the time we realize that it's not the plot, but the man we should be watching, half the movie has gone by and we're left wondering "What was the point?"

Where the movie does really succeed is Damon. After packing on the pounds to play the role, he needed to turn in a good performance, and he does. He is thoroughly convincing as Whitacre, pumping life into a movie that would otherwise have none. He shows Whitcare's ups and downs, and when the movie shifts into a complete character study, it is Damon's performance that keeps things going. The other performances in the movie are good as well, but none really stand out either way.

I consider myself to be a Steven Soderbergh fan, but it was his direction that brought the film down the most. There is a light-hearted, jovial tone over the whole movie, but the actual movie doesn't merit that. The music and screen-text harken back to an older time, as does the whole movie, and I wouldn't have had a problem with that if what was happening on screen felt the same. I'm not one of those people that thinks every movie needs to be dark, and I'm certainly not saying this about this one. It's just that what the movie was trying to make me feel just didn't line up with what it actually made me feel.

All in all, it certainly wasn't a bad trip to the movies, but it is nothing more than ok. If The Informant! shows us anything, it's that that great run of summer movies is now officially over.