The Informant! special screening + discussion with Steven Soderbergh

Overview

From the opening intertitle of The Informant! (or even from the title’s exclamation mark) it’s abundantly clear Steven Soderbergh is gearing up to have a lot of fun. Though based on the bizarre true story of white-collar whistleblower Mark Whitacre, there’s no way Soderbergh is going to let the facts get in the way of a good yarn. And what’s more he has Marvin Hamlisch supplying Broadway-style tunes (BYO jazz hands!) to further heighten his stylised, corporate caper. 

A chubby Matt Damon positively revels in the role of the Machiavellian yet ludicrously naïve agri-businessman Whitacre. Outwardly the role (and the extra pounds) is similar to Russell Crowe’s Oscar nominated turn in Michael Mann’s The Insider. Perhaps due to the success of that film, Soderbergh takes a self-reflexive, ironic about face and presents us with an entirely unreliable protagonist, one whose dealings with the FBI feel like something out of a movie. Case in point: most exposition is muted by Whitacre’s voice-over, where he quite randomly muses on life rather than narrating the facts. 


Then there are the visuals. Soderbergh, his production designer Doug J. Meerdink and his trusty RED camera recreate the Midwest of the 1990s with some splashings of 1970s kitsch. It’s an amusingly cheesy mix only aided by Whitacre’s succession of truly terrible ties and requisite taupe walls. Like all of Soderbergh’s experimental films, The Informant! is exercise in style as well as a refashioning of generic conventions.

At times, however, it feels like everyone on set is having a little too much fun, forgetting to move the story along. Consequently the third act drags and Damon’s character borders on becoming a cloying caricature. It’s worth sticking with The Informant! despite this; just enjoy a decidedly Coen-esque, darkly comic romp around corporate America with the delusional man who decided to cry wolf to the FBI.

The Informant! screens at Sydney Theatre Company at 1PM on Sunday afternoon, followed by a talk with director Steven Soderbergh. Sodenbergh's STC production Tot Mom opens on December 18.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ph4x5yw_DMQ