Review: The Informant

By Nigel Powlson

F you enjoyed the outrageous exploits of con-man Frank Abagnale in Steven Spielberg's 2003 film Catch Me If You Can, then The Informant is for you.

The real Abagnale led the FBI on an international goose chase, embezzling millions of dollars along the way and leading the life of a film star.

But he was an amateur compared with Marc Whitacre, a skilled liar and fantasist who also led agents a merry dance.

Whitacre was a rising star at agri-industry giants ADM who turned whistleblower to expose his company's price fixing. He wore a wire and carried a tape recorder in his brief case.

Yet while he was exposing his bosses, he was stealing millions from them and deceived the FBI for years with a string of elaborate lies.

Matt Damon plays the nerdy Whitacre with a suitable nervousness and Scott Bakula and Joel McHale are the FBI foot soldiers who are always one step behind their informant.

It's an intriguing story, more fascinating for being true, but as a darkly-comic action thriller it doesn't exactly work.

Director Steven Soderbergh admits he wanted to play up the irony of the situation and his jazzy style does treat the whole thing as a joke.

The Marvin Hamlisch score suits this loose approach but The Informant lacks the glamour of Catch Me if You Can.

Abagnale masqueraded as an airline pilot and hung around luxury hotels.

Whitacre was a drab family man – more motel than hotel, more EasyJet than BA Business Class.

Matt Damon sports oversized spectacles and a weary moustache that takes him a million miles away from Jason Bourne.

The fraud itself concerns amino-acid lysine, used to make the polyunsaturated corn oil in many food-related products.

Which is about as unsexy as fraud gets.

The comedy too is rather forced, perhaps because the events are already so preposterous they somewhat defy parody.

Maybe Soderbergh should have had more confidence in the bizarre nature of the story.

There are times when the deadpan style is dropped and you see a glimpse of a more serious movie – something akin to Russell Crowe whistleblower yarn The Insider.

The fact that one man with the gift of the gab and the ability to squeeze out of any scrape could cheat his employees and bemuse the FBI for so long is bizarre enough not to need embellishments.

THE INFORMANT

CERTIFICATE: 15

RUNNING TIME: 108 mins

STARTS: Today at Cinema De Lux in Derby.

RATING: 3/5