If it were fiction it would be a corporate espionage thriller. Because it is a true story, it is a comedy, a farce, a fiasco. Such is real life drama. (I know. I was there.)
Soderbergh has an excellent reputation for portraying realistic organizational espionage, intrigue and electronic surveillance. Remember his Valerie Plame affair series "K Street," on HBO?
If you liked "Barbarians at the Gate" (I was there, too). You'll love "The Informant!"
...one review... A mid-level executive at a corporation called ADM, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) works to ensure the continued good sales of the company's popular food additives, but when a mishap in the lab begins to cost the company significant amounts of money and threatens Whitacre's job, the mustachioed quasi-Everyman simply invents, out of thin air, a Japanese corporate blackmailer to whom he assigns the blame.
Enter the FBI, who might easily have caught on to Whitacre's deception had he not, in turn, spun yet another series of lies which propelled him into being the government's key witness and undercover informant in a massive corporate conspiracy case. And like all good con-jobs, Whitacre built his lies upon half-truths.
There was, indeed, a price-fixing scheme in place, but the laughable audacity with which Whitacre lead investigators through the ranks, deflecting attention from his own involvement – and subsequent embezzlement – is worthy of a standing ovation. The Informant is a one-man show, carried completely by the strength of Damon's tremendously effective performance.
Whitacre, for all intents and purposes, should be a hugely unlikeable guy, but Damon lends the character a sense of kamikaze bravado and wide-eyed whimsy that makes it impossible not to feel at least slightly sympathetic toward him. From the paunchy mid-section to the ridiculous hairpiece, Whitacre seems like the kind of guy trying desperately to move up and be taken seriously in the corporate world. (more) (the original story, summarized) (wikipedia) (The Informant - book) ('This American Life' audio version)
Although it may not be clear in the movie, or the book, the only person who identified Whitacre as unstable early on, reported it to management (was ignored), discovered Whitacre's 9 million plus dollar theft from ADM, and recovered the money, was ADM's corporate security director, Mark J. Cheviron. He is the true unsung hero of this story and one of the few top ADM executives to emerge untarnished. The old top management is gone today. Mr. Cheviron remains.
~Kevin (you can have the isle seat)
