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The Informant!

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: R
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

The Informant! is a good movie. Unfortunately, it’s also the kind of movie that leaves people feeling ambiguous. On the one hand, it is well-made and well-acted. On the other, it’s a head-scratcher. There are so many twists and turns that by the middle of the movie, I stopped trying to figure out what was going on and just accepted the confusion. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is open to interpretation.

Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is a successful company man who decides to turn mole for the FBI. He claims that he wants to be one of the good guys, but it becomes clear that even he doesn’t know what he wants. He’s delusional. As the overweight, clueless Whitacre, Damon delivers a flawless performance. Whitacre is so optimistically deluded that his portrayal could come off as a parody of incompetent CEOs. To an extent, it probably is. In Damon’s hands, though, Whitacre is believable. He’s a ridiculous, hilarious character, but he’s also got some serious issues that become more obvious as the film goes on. Damon’s incongruous voice-overs that carry throughout the movie are funny and well-delivered, although they do get annoying at times. They provide insight into his chaotic mind, but they could be cut down a notch.

Damon stands out, as he should, but he is also backed up by a terrific cast. The underrated Melanie Lynskey is Whitacre’s wife, Ginger, who faithfully goes along for his wacky ride. She is a sympathetic character, but her devotion to her husband is also a bit mind-boggling. The Soup’s Joel McHale delivers a straight performance as one of the FBI agents working with Damon, and Scott Bakula is great as the other agent on the case. Steven Soderbergh has already proved that he is a great director with movies like Traffic and Erin Brockovich, and he does a good job here, too. The Informant! is actually sort of like Erin Brockovich, if the title character were an idiot who messed up the lives of everyone around her. The ridiculous situations are funny, and the movie is successful as a dark comedy.

With so many things going for this movie, then, it’s hard to decide why I walked away frowning. It is good, and I would recommend it, but not without some reservations. There are so many lies that it becomes hard to keep track. It’s good to gain insight into how the people around Whitacre must have felt in all the confusion, but the movie is almost too confusing to follow. It needs multiple viewings to be fully understood, and I don’t know that it deserves such patience. Despite the difficulties, it is a good movie. Matt Damon’s performance alone makes it worth at least one look.