The Informant! (2009)

Interesting true story about a pathologic liar well told and acted.

Soderbergh walks the line between absurd hilarity & grounded sadness so well in this true story of a not-all-there whistleblower. Damon gives one of his greatest most underrated, performances. He's playing a man who desperately wants to speak & for people to hear him, even if what he's saying is untrue or uninteresting. The movie gets a bit unwieldy when the details are coming out, but it's still a quirky & wonderful example of how the human element can ruin even the best laid plans.

"The Informant!" has plenty of twists and turns that will leave you completely surprised and laughing hysterically. It's one of those true stories that's so insane it has to be true, if only because no writer would have the guts to create a tale with so many ups and downs and manic developments for our main character. It has a lot of great performances, particularly from Matt Damon and it's a smart film that knows your comedy doesn't need to go for the easy route to get some genuine laughs. The comedy comes from the dialog and the situations that our hero gets himself in, no people getting hit on the head with hammers or getting caught in compromising situations after a night of binge drinking. If that's what you're prepared to see, you'll have a great time. It's suspenseful and hilarious so you better be prepared to dedicate some time after the film to look up the true story just so you can find out even more about Mark Whitacre and all the other people involved. (On DVD, September 2, 2012)

The Informant! has a solid witty script, a fun performance by Damon as the man who can't seem to stop telling lies and has some of the ugliest cinematography from a studio picture in recent memory. Even with 35mm, when Soderbergh began to serve as his own DP his lighting was sloppy and his visuals unpolished - with the Red One camera, his visuals are downright heinous and his stylistic attempt at blowing out the highlights just backfires and makes this look like camcorder footage. There's enough good material here to survive the horrors of the cinematography. This based on a true story of a whistleblower who digs himself into a bottomless hole of lies and gets the prosecution running in every direction until they begin to suspect him, is pretty lightweight and enjoyable. Damon commits himself to this oddball character and while he's not the most sympathetic character, he is fascinating enough to watch as he spins a web of lies so complex, he becomes a wrecking ball of a human that destroys everyone around him. The Informant! doesn't have a lot of gravitas, but it's a strange little film about a strange man that's worth a watch.