{"id":5182,"date":"2009-09-22T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-22T19:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=5182"},"modified":"2009-09-22T13:05:45","modified_gmt":"2009-09-22T21:05:45","slug":"the-informant-steven-soderbergh-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=5182","title":{"rendered":"The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at The Riviera, Santa Barbara<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Steven Soderbergh has managed once again\u00a0to bring to the big screen an ordinary life that’s full of color and rich in character.\u00a0 Unlike Erin Brockovich (2000) which was a drama with bits of humor thrown in, The Informant!<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>is upbeat, witty, and plays out like a dark comedy.\u00a0 What makes it so comical are the many (mindless)\u00a0voice overs we hear of Mark Whitacre’s thoughts – in the midst of intrigue, Mark thinks to himself how much he likes indoor pools, because of the visible steam they emit on cold days.<\/p>\n

Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is\u00a0 a pudgy,\u00a0high-level executive at ADM nearing middle-age.\u00a0 He convinces his boss that there is a mole within the company that is selling secrets to their Japanese competitors.\u00a0 When the Japanese come calling and try to extort millions from the company, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) has no choice but to involve the FBI.\u00a0 Enter special agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) who is given permission to tap Whitacre’s home phone, and once there, Whitacre confides\u00a0to Shepard that the company has put into practice a price-fixing scheme, and is actually\u00a0in cahoots with the Japanese and South Korean competitors.<\/p>\n

There are constant twists and turns, and without giving too much of the plot away, one must have a keen ear for the voice overs, because not only are they ridiculously funny, they are also a vital clue into Whitacre’s thought process.\u00a0 We indeed find out that Whitacre does not have a clean slate himself, as he has\u00a0spun a web of lies that grow out of control.\u00a0\u00a0He does have\u00a0a heart and that is why\u00a0the special agents stick by him.<\/p>\n

Matt Damon portrays Whitacre as endearingly likable, despite his helpless buffoonery – he becomes the mid-western exec., gaining almost 30 lbs. for the role.\u00a0 His subtle performance deserves a nod by The Academy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at The Riviera, Santa Barbara Steven Soderbergh has managed once again\u00a0to bring to the big screen an ordinary life that’s full of color and rich in character.\u00a0 Unlike Erin Brockovich (2000) which was a drama with bits of humor thrown in, The Informant!\u00a0 is upbeat, witty, and plays out like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema-society","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}