sammi says

Friday night I saw, "The Informant!" directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon. I can't really explain why I wanted to see such a film on opening night but I thought the previews made it look funny and perhaps I fell into the trap of Joel McHale's self promotion on "The Soup," every week. Turns out, McHale's part isn't very big and is actually pretty serious.

If you're not aware, this movie is based on the true story of Mark "Corky" Whitacre (Damon), a corporate executive at a lysine (some sort of corn product) plant, ADM, in Decatur, Illinois, who rats out his entire company for being a part of an international price fixing scheme. I'd be lying if I said I understood all the business lingo and intricacies this plot deals with, but there were only a few parts that I had "Huh?" moments. The heart of the story is not about the actual crime itself but how Whitacre deals with the FBI, his co-workers and family through his years of undercover work in the 1990's.

Throughout all of these horribly dry business situations we're able to hear Whitacre's inner-dialogue which makes the movie. He quips lines about little anecdotes he's heard before or when meeting the FBI agent (played by Scott Bakula) how he thinks that they could probably be friends and go fishing together. Whitacre is portrayed as this lovable, well educated, family-man good guy, but as the movie goes on we learn that he is a compulsive liar among many other less-than desirable things.

This film is very subtle in its humor and is very dry. It kept me interested through all 108 minutes, but it probably isn't for everyone. Leaving the theatre, I could hear a group of 20-somethings in front of us complaining about how boring the film was and how one of them fell asleep. I don't know if they just didn't know what they were getting into, or what. Heaven forbid you see a comedy that has a little bit of meat behind it. There are also small parts played by comedians like Patton Oswald and Tony Hale if that makes you more interested. I thought Damon was fantastic and funny and I'd recommend the movie to a friend.