ImageFrom the opening intertitle of The Informant! (or even from the title’s exclamation mark) it’s abundantly clear Steven Soderbergh is gearing up to have a lot of fun. Though based on the bizarre true story of white-collar whistleblower Mark Whitacre, there’s no way Soderbergh is going to let the facts get in the way of a good yarn. And what’s more he has Marvin Hamlisch supplying Broadway-style tunes (BYO jazz hands!) to further heighten his stylised, corporate caper.
A chubby Matt Damon positively revels in the role of the Machiavellian yet ludicrously naïve agri-businessman Whitacre. Outwardly the role (and the extra pounds) is similar to Russell Crowe’s Oscar nominated turn in Michael Mann’s The Insider. Perhaps due to the success of that film, Soderbergh takes a self-reflexive, ironic about face and presents us with an entirely unreliable protagonist, one whose dealings with the FBI feel like something out of a movie. Case in point: most exposition is muted by Whitacre’s voice-over, where he quite randomly muses on life rather than narrating the facts.
Then there are the visuals. Soderbergh, his production designer Doug J. Meerdink and his trusty RED camera recreate the Midwest of the 1990s with some splashings of 1970s kitsch. It’s an amusingly cheesy mix only aided by Whitacre’s succession of truly terrible ties and requisite taupe walls. Like all of Soderbergh’s experimental films, The Informant! is exercise in style as well as a refashioning of generic conventions.
At times, however, it feels like everyone on set is having a little too much fun, forgetting to move the story along. Consequently the third act drags and Damon’s character borders on becoming a cloying caricature. It’s worth sticking with The Informant! despite this; just enjoy a decidedly Coen-esque, darkly comic romp around corporate America with the delusional man who decided to cry wolf to the FBI.
The Informant! screens at Sydney Theatre Company at 1PM on Sunday afternoon, followed by a talk with director Steven Soderbergh. Sodenbergh's STC production Tot Mom opens on December 18.
Published on Concrete Playground.
Australian release date: 3 December 2009
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5 comments:
Can't wait to see this. Have you listened to this:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=168
Great podcast on the guy who the story is based on: amazing.
Also, every time I see Matt Damon's name with Steven Soderberg, I think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuYD2cwMbpw
Thanks Kate! I shall listen to This American Life - but that McConaughey impression is pure gold! Brilliant!
I went in for this big. Granted, it's perhaps a little slight. But it's certainly one of the most entertaining pieces I've seen of late, and Damon is nothing short of stellar.
Yeah I liked to too just some nice easy watching, partly because it is very very Coen-esque. I wasn't that sold on the visuals though the burn out whites were a bit distacting. It has got me good and excited about A Serious Man though.
A little slight but super entertaining. Yup, I'll go with that.
@Ciaran you'll have to let me know what you make of A Serious Man. I was left a little cold. Will endeavor to read the Book of Job before I take another crack at the film.
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