Reviewed by Kate Rodger
This is Matt Damon as you have never seen him before. Bespectacled, overweight, wearing bad beige and a mo worthy of Magnum PI, this is about as far from Jason Bourne as you’re going get.
In fact, The Informant! as a whole is about as far from Bourne as you get, as director Steven Soderberg continues to mix it up, delivering a quirky comedy bound to divide critics and audiences alike.
I sit on the up side of the divide. Not in a singing-its-praises-to-the-rafters kind of way, but certainly smiling widely. There’s plenty to like about this movie.
Based on a true story, we're in 1990’s middle America. Damon is Mark Whitacre, a corporate whistle-blower as you’ve never seen before. He knows everything you need to know about corn. In fact, he appears to know everything you need to know about a lot of things. Well as least, we think he does.
If I’m sounding a little vague there’s good reason to with this film. Appearances are everything, with comedy mined in the most unlikely places.
New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey (Show of Hands) comes to the fore here, as Damon’s trusting wife Ginger, standing by her man as all good wives should, desperate for him to ‘do the right thing’.
Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) returns to the big screen with disturbing hair and a great performance as small-town FBI agent Brian Shepard. Convinced he’s about blow the lid on one of America’s biggest corporate price-fixing conspiracies, Whitacre is his inside man, whether he likes it or not.
What’s true and what’s not is important, so try to keep up, you might need to know that later.
This kind of comedy isn’t for everyone, and may leave some shrugging their shoulders and looking round the cinema bewilderedly as the final credits roll.
Others will lap it up, rolling in the aisles.
The rest of you may well feel like I did, glad of an offbeat Matt Damon experience which definitely left me smiling.
Three and a half stars
The Informant!
:: Director: Stephen Soderberg
:: Starring: Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula
:: Running Time: 108 mins
:: Rating: M - Offensive Language
:: Release Date: December 3, 2009
:: Trailer: Click here
