THE INFORMANT!
US, 2009, 108 minutes, Colour.
Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel Mc Hale, Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers, Candy Clark, Clancy Brown.
Directed by Steven Soderberg.
It would be very hard not to enjoy The Informant!
It is necessary to note the ! In the title – and to relish the initial disclaimer about truth and having to put events and characters together for fiction – ending with 'so there'.
It is a great part for Matt Damon (older and heavier) as a biochemist who is an FBI informant about kickbacks, extortion threats and price-fixing conspiracies in a powerful company in Dakatur, Illinois, in the first half of the 1990s.
And the screenplay is very clever. Introducing us to Mark Whitacre (Damon), a somewhat buttoned up scientist who has become involved in marketing and management, we find he is a jovial and charming worker, father, with a model wife (Melanie Lynskey) and two adopted children (because that is the right thing to do). The right thing is very important to him as he begins his two and a half years collaboration with two FBI agents (Scott Bakula and Joel Mc Hale).
The other clever aspect of the screenplay is revealing Mark's inner life and imagination through Damon's ingenious voiceover – often distracted, patriotically ambitious in grandiose business dreams, liberally quoting TV series (real and imagined), articles and even Grisham's The Firm, novel and movie. And all this is backed up by a delightfully jaunty Marvin Hamlisch score.
But..., you need to see the film for humorous disbelief as Mark's story unfolds, infolds, crossfolds and overfolds.
In an era when US Capitalism (see Michael Moore's Capitalism, a Love Story) and bogus finance practices are being explosed, this is a lightheartedly serious insight into efficiency and inefficiency, FBI investigations, the Justice Department and general gullibility.
This is Steven Soderbergh in Oceans 11, 12, 13 vein but less trivially so.
1.An entertaining film? Serious? American financial troubles?
2.The initial disclaimer, the ‘so there’? The clever screenplay, the wit, inventiveness, complexities, the voice-over and the revelation of Mark? The blend of the light and serious tone?
3.Dekatur, Illinois, the 1990s, the company, the cornfields, homes? The FBI offices? The international perspective: Zurich, Paris, Tokyo? The law courts and the Justice Department?
4.The Marvin Hamlisch score, its jaunty tone, perfect for the blend of the light and serious? The final song and its lyrics?
5.The introduction to Mark, the drive with his son, going through the corn, the explanations of the use of corn, the background of the company, its products? Mark, his family, his model wife, the adopted children? His speech, at the office, with his bosses, kindly to his secretary? Meals at home? Ordinary but unusual? Proper?
6.The importance of the voice-over, the images, the distractions that Mark experienced, the voicing of these, his alter-ego, his inventing the history of the accident, his adoption? The odious comparisons with his bosses? His continuing to invent? His quoting TV shows, imagining TV shows, quoting books and articles, quoting The Firm and the clip from the film?
7.His attitude towards the bosses, despising them, motivation for what he did? His ambitions, declaring he wanted to run the company? The realities of his embezzlement?
8.The extortion plot, the ramifications, Japan, bugging the phones, bringing in the FBI, bugging his home line? What the bosses asked of him? His wife and her reaction, wanting him to tell the truth? Opening up to Brian, the talk in the car, the revelations about the company, the phone calls, the extortion, the price-fixing? Engineering the meetings, the recording of the meetings, the setting up of the video? His exhilaration at what was happening? Two hundred tapes or more?
9.Brian, the contact with the FBI, Bob, their work? Their skill as agents, conscientious, yet believing everything from Mark? Visiting Mark and his wife? Sharing the surveillance? Brian and the machinery, the editing of the material? Wanting Mark to get evidence? The humour, the man who sat in front of the camera?
10.Mark, his avoiding Brian, travelling, the contracts, the deals – and the later revelations about his forgeries and embezzlement? The meetings, the quotes, getting the bosses and the Japanese to say what he wanted? His concern about his job, keeping it after the revelations? Ingenuous?
11.The representatives of the Justice Department, the interviews, the need for evidence? Their satisfaction when they got it?
12.The build-up to the raid, Mark in fact letting others know about it, his motives, his need to talk? His behaviour during the arrests, the support from the bosses, providing their legal advice? The FBI advice not to take it? His persuading the firm’s lawyer that he needed an independent lawyer?
13.The lawyers, listening to Mark’s stories, the growing disbelief? The documents, the inventions, the revelation of lies, his motivation? His collaboration, the lawyers wanting to collaborate with the Justice Department? Their giving up? His getting the homespun lawyer, the case against Brian assaulting him with a briefcase – and the later denial?
14.The Justice Department, the meetings, the reaction to Brian and Bob, their being off the case, visiting Mark to discuss issues and handling of them?
15.The personalities of the bosses, their plans, international contacts, price-fixing, the case, their going to jail?
16.Mark and his hospital scan, the advice of his psychiatrist? His blaming others for everything? Forging the letter from the psychiatrist?
17.The court, his speech, offering apologies, the sentence, the opinion of the judge?
18.Mark in jail, his doing diplomas, the revelation that he was wearing a wig (and the hints earlier)? His continued lying, the amounts of money, the visit from Bob, being taped?
19.The explanation of what happened to the variety of characters? To Mark – and his being the CEO of the company? Was any of the story true or not?
