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Karnataka

Karnataka

Dark comedy of whistleblower thrills

Top class: The Informant! reminds us once again what a talented actor Matt Damon is

The Informant! (English)

Cast: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Based on the true story of a corporate whistleblower, The Informant! is a brilliantly written, marvellously acted dark comedy.

In this film, the incredibly talented Steven Soderbergh turns his quirky eye on corporate crime. In 1992, Mark Whitacre, a scientist and rising star in an agro firm, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), decides to turn informant for the FBI about a price-fixing conspiracy.

When Agents Brian Shepard and Robert Herndon tell Whitacre they need evidence, he happily agrees to wear a wire and record hundreds of tapes of evidence, imagining himself to be some sort of secret agent.

He even calls himself 0014, being “twice as smart as 007”. However, when the time comes to take down ADM, the FBI realises that Whitacre has not been entirely honest about his agenda.

With the case practically coming apart at the seams, the FBI and the Justice Department become increasingly frustrated with Whitacre’s ever-changing stories, half-lies and fanciful prevarications.

Based on the novel The Informant (A True Story), written by Kurt Eichenwald, the film reminds us once again what a talented actor Matt Damon is.

He loses all his hard edges and lovely “sexiest-man-alive” body in the pudgy blob that is Whitacre.

The hairpiece, the little moustache, the eager smile, the glasses are all the outward embellishments while the uncanny way in which Damon internalises Whitacre is a paean to his art.

Given Damon’s Bourne legacy, there was every chance of the movie deteriorating into a referential indulgence as Whitacre is also quite the globetrotter — in Zurich one day and Tokyo the next. However, credit goes to Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns for the gossamer touch in creating believable characters anchored in reality.

We get a fascinating peek into the mind of Whitacre, which seems a repository of strange facts and stranger digressions. Take the polar bear one for instance where Whitacre muses: “Polar bears cover their noses before they pounce on a seal. How do polar bears know their noses are black? Did they look in the water one day, see their reflection and say, ‘Man, I’d be invisible if it wasn’t for that thing’.” It does not get weirder than this!

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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