Often taking on other key roles in the production under pseudonyms (he was the cinematographer on The Informant! under the name Peter Andrews), Soderbergh constructs a world on screen around his story and characters unlike anyone else. The prolific Steven Soderbergh has long ago proved his versatility as a filmmaker and his creativity that permeates every aspect of the films he makes. Perhaps a nod to the whistleblowing dramas of the 1970s, perhaps just another Soderbergh experiment, The Informant! remains striking to watch. The story largely takes place in the mid-90s and whilst technology and fashion styles are consistent with the period, the film’s credits, score, camera work and colouring otherwise date the film somewhere around 1975. Soderbergh has also gone to great pains to make the film look as if it was taking place in the 1970s. The whole film sits behind a yellow hue, a clear nod to the corn industry at the centre of the plot. Soderbergh’s films are often experimentally stylish and The Informant! employs some obvious and other less obvious visual devices. It’s rare that an original score such as this is as important or as noteworthy as Hamlisch’s work is, but it’s fair to say that The Informant! wouldn’t be half the film without it. Marvin Hamlisch’s incredible composing is critical to the narrative and in many cases provides the gags itself. Instead, it weaves comic absurdity through every element most notably the score. Although The Informant! is a comedy, it isn’t looking for belly laughs.
He captures the contradictions of the character perfectly, playing to the comic elements of the script as well as the ultimate tragedy of this figure.
And as the story unfolds, Whitacre becomes even more deluded and isolated from reality and the other characters become increasingly confused by his behaviour.ĭamon’s performance is superb. The seemingly nonsensical and irrelevant monologues are an early clue that Whitacre isn’t completely in touch with reality. Soderbergh takes us on a bizarre journey through the psyche of what is ultimately a very troubled mind. However it’s not as simple as this the film is partly narrated by Whitacre who is the very definition of unreliable. He accuses the company of price fixing, and so spies on behalf of the FBI who attempt to build a case against them. Mark Whitacre played by Matt Damon is the informant inside the agriculture giant ADM.
Whereas Michael Mann’s superb The Insider was a self-consciously serious look at corporate greed gone amuck, Steven Soderbergh takes us on an altogether more cynical and often sarcastic journey through what could have been the biggest corporate scandal in modern American history. The exclamation mark at the end of The Informant! tells us much about what we need to know about this film. Tom Papa, Rusty Schwimmer, Eddie Jemison, Lucas McHugh Carroll, Matt Damon
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