Are you in the mood to see a genuinely intriguing film? If you are, then go see Steven Soderbergh’s new movie ‘The Informant’!

‘The Informant’ is adapted from Kurt Eichenwald’s best selling 2000 book, ‘The Informant’. Eichewald’s book tells the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) an Ivy League PH.D who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s when he became informant.

Whitacre furtively gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio tape documenting his company’s involvement in price fixing which he then handed over to the FBI. His actions earned him the distinction of being the highest ranked executive ever in American corporate history to turn whistleblower.

Do not go into ‘The Informant’ expecting another in the long list of films depicting lily-white, moral crusading whistleblowers! Mark Whitacre doesn’t fit this description, at all. As the FBI investigation into ADM broadens it is revealed that Whitacre himself is anything but squeaky clean and that he is even more corrupt than his colleagues. The FBI agents that have been supporting Whitacre are driven to exasperation by each new revelation about their former ‘favourite son’!

Above all, ‘The Informant’ is a fascinating character study. How does one understand a man like Whitacre?! One moment he is incredibly naive expecting ADM to promote him after he has done the dirt on them, the next moment he is lying to senior attorneys that need his honest answers. The medical diagnosis of severe bi-polar feels like it’s only one part of the picture. This guy is on the same enigmatic level as Frank Abagnale Junior of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’ fame!

Soderbergh tells the story in a detached, comical style that features a tongue in cheek, jazz soundtrack. It’s as if he can’t believe this guy himself. Matt Damon’s performance as Whitacre is sensational as is Melanie Lynskey’s performance as Whitacre’s beleaguered wife Ginger who goes the whole nine yards for her husband.