Review of The Informant! (2009) by Robin T — 04 Nov 2010

This movie is very profoundly confusing. Matt Damon plays a pahological liar whose untruths have grown, evolved and mutated into an independant entity that has eaten his life and would appear to be wearing him like a meatsuit.

The character that Damon plays is based on a real-life person who blew the whistle on the monopoly and strangehold that his company has over thier field. That is all well and good, but he doesn't just blow the whistle - that would be too obvious.

The instument he plays seems more akin to a series of hidden and remote-controlled slide whistles. That is so say, that his cooperation is never transparent, hisinformation is not always useful or accurate and seldom both at once.

I think the bulk of the comedy comes from how normal and boring Damon's character looks. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would send every-freakin'-body on a wild goose chase. His intentions are never clear and his stance is never definite.

I gave up assuming that he's really deep and came instead to the conclusion that he's really just very shallow, and doing all this for his own profit and amusement. It helped me make sense of an otherwise hopelessly tangled narrative.