Arts
September 24
There's nothing inherently funny about corporate scandal and price fixing in agribusiness. That's why Steven Soderbergh has to pull out all the stops to craft a side-splitting comedy from some fairly dry, raw material
Soderbergh is already popular among audiences for crowd favorites like "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), "Ocean's Twelve" (2004) and "Ocean's Thirteen" (2007), and his film on the seedy underbelly of the corporate world, "Erin Brockovich" (2000). Confidence in the director, combined with the magnetism of a fat Matt Damon with a mustache, makes "The Informant!" enticingly attractive.
The film is billed as a comedy, but its method — a super-slow version of comedic timing — means that the film doesn't hit its stride until halfway through. At an easy one-hour and 45 minutes, though, that's forgivable.
Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon) is a high-level executive at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), an enormous Midwestern corporation dealing in corn byproducts. But all is not as it seems, as ADM is secretly involved in a multi-national price-fixing scheme with its competitors, and Whitacre is in the perfect position to reveal the scam. He becomes an informant, agreeing to cooperate with the FBI and wear a wire to work.
Whitacre takes everyone for a ride, as it turns out he might not be the best man for the FBI's inside job. The movie's pace quickens, and Whitacre, the FBI and the audience all find themselves in a quagmire of absurdity. Whitacre is a liar and a thief, but it's hard to tell if he's lying about being a thief because Damon plays him with such sincerity.
Damon's performance makes the movie. Anyone else would make the role of Mark Whitacre seem outright villainous. Damon, however, infuses him with a homegrown, boyish charm. Everyone does trust him — ADM, the FBI, his wife Ginger. But here's the crushing realization: maybe they shouldn't.
Soderbergh carefully considers every element of his work, including the score. He did much the same thing with the music in the "Ocean's" series, in which David Holmes' compositions, which played on the hip jazz of the mid '60s, solidified the ambiance of those films. In this case, Marvin Hamlisch's kitschy, tongue-in-cheek score functions similarly.
Mark Whitacre is introduced with his own theme song, a refrain heard throughout the film. It's like an updated version of the "Leave It to Beaver" (1957) theme. The rest of the score is equally schmaltzy. Out of context, it sounds like an episode of "Match Game" (1977). The upbeat, cornball music starkly contrasts with the deathly serious events onscreen, and it heightens the film's sense of absurdity until it's truly funny. For example, Whitacre takes a lie detector test to the tune of a country hoedown. The FBI conducts a raid on white-collar criminals as a 1970s-style talk show theme song plays in the background.
The supporting cast is also pretty funny. Just ask them; they'd probably say so themselves. Soderbergh found a pack of recognizable comedians, dressed them up in suits and called them lawyers, FBI agents, corporate bigwigs and representatives from the Justice Department. Joel McHale, Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, Tony Hale and, surprisingly, the Smothers Brothers all make appearances. It's a clever trick, packing the cast with people who are already considered funny. These are faces with histories of hilarity that trigger a kind of, "Hah! That guy!" reaction, complete with a laugh.
There is an overarching theme of incongruity throughout the film that contributes to its humor. This is best exemplified by Mark Whitacre's inner monologue. The movie opens with a voiceover as Whitacre meditates on the implications of corporate food production. Since ADM produces the corn products that show up in everything, "Everyone in this country is a victim of corporate crime by the time they finish breakfast." That's about as relevant as Whitacre's thoughts get. Mostly they're just a stream-of-consciousness rant, unrelated to anything happening onscreen: ideas for TV shows, musings about ties, polar bears and frequent-flier miles. It's an interesting juxtaposition, and instead of distracting and detracting from the film's action, the voiceover complements it.
"The Informant!" is an unusual addition to the world of film comedy because FBI investigations into high-level corporate fraud don't necessarily engender the kind of laugh-out-loud humor that an overt comedy like "The Hangover" (2009) does. The laughs are not served up on that obvious silver platter of pratfalls and poop jokes.
In the end, it is precisely this break with norms of comedy that makes this film so appealing.
