Review of The Informant! (2009) by Sergio D — 19 Nov 2010

There's the old term "one trick pony". If you think about that phrase - a show animal with one trick. It may be an amazing trick, but watching the pony perform the same trick for an hour and a half.... well, you get the picture.

The Informant includes a stellar performance by Matt Damon, who plays an upper management type in a large agro corp (think high fructose corn syrup) who is hip to the company's illegal price fixing deals. He panics when the FBI starts sniffing around, and, well, one lie leads to another, each one more outrageous than the one prior - and yet, the FBI doesn't catch on for the longest time (seems like forever, if you ask me).

Scott Bakala is totally miscast as the FBI special agent in charge. His part is simply ridiculous and he seems to not know if he's playing it for laughs or is wondering how the script can be so aweful if Damon signed on for it.

To tell the truth - Damon's part IS the film. He pulls off being sincere while telling a lie to cover up a lie that was trying to mislead the Feds or his higher ups, or even his wife. As each lie becomes a bigger fish story, he starts to believe his own rhetoric (hmm. kind of like most politicians - so maybe there's a subtext here that I've been missing - wow, Soderberg's brilliant.... nah).

Sorry - at its core the film works on a certain level, as you almost can't wait to see the next whopper coming out of Damon's mouth - but a film needs to be more than that; so in spite of Damon's spirited and believable performance, this film barely eeks out a fresh rating from me as the yuk yuk, aren't we funny feel of the film (complete with some of the more inane, really stupid music tracks I've heard in many a moon) really started to get on my nerves. If you appreciate another good performance by Damon, and feel it's nice to see him not playing an action hero, then go ahead and rent this one - otherwise, get into your mustang and ride, Sally, ride.

After all, would I lie to you?