iiiIn his latest collaboration with award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, The Informant!, Matt Damon plays chubby, dorky businessman Mark Whitacre. Whitacre is a whistleblower employed by the FBI to bust a multinational company committing price-fixing crimes. Or that's the plan.
When the FBI's plan goes too smoothly, the agents start picking holes in Whitacre's ever-changing story and realise their inside man isn't as reliable as they'd hoped.
It is hard to believe this outrageous, stranger-than-fiction dark comedy is based on a real case from the 1990s. It's even harder to see how such a weird, distracted guy as Whitacre could have messed up plans formed by supposedly smart FBI agents.
The story is made confusing with too many twists, clues and dialogues. It's impossible to remember the names of the many companies and supporting characters, let alone the legal terms and procedures.
Whitacre's stream-of-consciousness monologue makes the character more convincing and interesting, making the plot even less coherent in comparison. If you miss a moment, you may as well give up. And the yellow, dim, often blurry scenes are visually dull.
The story itself is fascinating but the unconventional execution and lack of obvious climax mean the brilliant acting and directing go to waste if you aren't focused before you sit down to watch.
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