A different way of telling a story

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I loved the Marvin Hamlisch throw back music which greatly enhanced the story. Matt Damon is a biochemical engineer for Archer Daniels Midland. He is in charge of lysine production, which is having problems. He claims the problem is a virus that a Japanese mole has introduced to the product. The FBI is called in. Matt informs the FBI of another evil that is on going...international lysine price fixing! Matt comes across as a squeaky clean guy who only wants to help make things right. He believes by informing on his company, the board of directors will reward him for doing right, by making him CEO. If you don't see the humor in that, you most likely won't enjoy the film.The FBI has Matt go undercover in what is the nerdiest undercover man to wear a wire. I had to laugh at Matt's character as he played 0014 spy. When things start to hit the fan, it gets weird and twisted.This reminded me of an old 60's style comedy with Damon being super intelligent and naive. I would have enjoyed the film even if it wasn't based on a true story. Great characters.PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, no sex or nudity.

It was a interesting movie that's great for cable! I didn't think I would like it when it first came on after a movie I watched on purpose but I ended up being hooked in because the life of this snitch and the lies he told and the holes he dug himself was quite interesting! It's worth a watch once with emphasis on once!

I went to this film back in 2009 when it was released because I couldn't decide on what movie to see. I judged the film by the poster.Wow, what a huge mistake I made. This is the most boring movie ever (even Matt Damon couldn't save it!) The story is beyond flat, the acting is terrible and everything about it is terrible. I wish i could have gotten my one hour and forty eight minutes back because it felt like it dragged on and on and on.Please trust me when I say this is Matt Damon's worst film he has ever made. This gets a 1 star from me, and i wish I could bury every copy of it and let it never see the light of day. Run away from this film and don't let anyone else see it either. The less people that see it the better. I give The Informant! a 1/10.

Back in 2009, one of the first films that I went to see at the Toronto International Film Festival was The Informant, starring Matt Damon and Scott Bakula. I had never really checked out a film festival before and so the experience itself was rather strange. It's interesting then that one of my first films at the festival was a pretty strange film itself. First and foremost is the fact that Matt Damon almost disappears into the role of Mark Whitacre as a bio-chemist at a middle-American corn producer known as ADM.There are a number of actors who can't really move beyond their fame. Actors like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Robert DeNiro and Woody Harrelson are the kind of actors who I can only ever see as the actors they are and not the roles that they play. There are exceptions to that rule, for instance, Woody Harrelson in 'Defendor', Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in 'Fight Club', and George Clooney as Everett McGill in 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' Matt Damon on the other hand can sometimes be a bit of a wild card in the roles that he takes. Roles like 'Dogma' or 'Ocean's 11', while incredible, are roles in which he seems to have been cast for the fact of his status as an actor whereas a role like Jason Bourne or Will Hunting, he finds a way to disappear into the role he is playing and you almost forget who he is.I would put 'The informant' in the category of one where he disappears, the subtle way in which he portrays a nervous yet simple man who believes in doing the right thing despite his co-workers views of things and business practises is nothing short of brilliant. But the portrayal is not the only good thing about the film. As the story progresses, you start to realize that things are not entirely what they seem in the world Mark Whitacre inhabits. This begins a series of twists and turns to the plot that would normally be seen in a crime drama or a political thriller but feels right at home in this rather strange and quiet comedy.Perhaps it's the fact that so many of the characters seem genuine and honest in the way they deal with the situation at hand, the question of price fixing in the international markets of corn, that makes some of the eventual betrayals so damning and difficult to watch yet so very funny at the same time. The film ultimately becomes one in which there is no clear bad guy in all of it. Not because people haven't done something wrong, but because you end up caring about the characters despite what they've done. None of the characters really seem underhanded or angry in what they do. Perhaps that's why when things start to go wrong you don't really see it coming.So much about this movie is understated and unexpected. From the acting to the camera work and the storytelling, which I think is what makes it work so well. This isn't a movie about clear lines between right and wrong, or good versus bad. It's about people, and the way in which people go wrong in their pursuit of success.Would you hire The Informant? I probably wouldn't, but I would definitely hire the people who made the film.To check out more of my reviews, go here:http://andrew-heard.blogspot.ca/