Another movie about cunning thievery, presented in a visually and narratively humorous style, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon…is this Oceans 14? Not exactly. The Informant weaves a much more tangled web than other favorite “silly” crime movies you may have. And, believe it or not, this story is based on true events.

Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is the youngest division executive for food industry giant ADM with a lot of responsibility. ADM’s product is contaminated and Whitacre’s head is on the chopping block. He goes to the company executives with news he has been contacted at home by a rival Japanese company claiming to have planted a saboteur inside of ADM to contaminate the product and is willing to reveal the identity, as well as provide a fix to the contamination to the tune of 10 million dollars. During the subsquent FBI investigation of corporate extortion, agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) heads to Whitacre’s home in order to wire his phone line so he can listen in on any conversation that might happen should the Japanese company call him back. Whitacre fully complies with the investigation, and then out of nowhere…reveals to Agent Shepard the ADM is part of  an large global price fixing scheme with food industry giants all over the world and there was no Japanese saboteur but that he just SAID there was so he could get into contact with the FBI so he could bring ADM’s executives to justice.

…wait, what?

This is quite a large pill for the FBI to swallow as their focus is shifted to something much larger than corporate extortion. Over the next few years, Whitacre becomes the informant for Agent Shepard and his partner Agent Bob Herndon (Joel McHale). But not before he makes sure “there isn’t anything more you need to tell” us, right?  So begins the confusion of what Mark Whitacre is and isn’t hiding.

For someone who seemingly has a lot of secrets, he isn’t very good at keeping some of them. Whitacre wears a wire and is openly very descriptive of everything he sees and everyone he talks to.  While still undercover, he admits to his secretary that the FBI is planning on raiding ADM in the coming month. Oh and his friend Schmitty. Oh and Karen, but she can be trusted. His lawyer, James Epstein (Tony Hale), instructs him not to speak to anyone about any details of the case. The press picks up the entire thing, but of course he only called the press to tell them he “had no comment, but they already had the story anyway”.  The secrets he does keep manage to get out on their own eventually, only to find out that most of them weren’t true anyway.

Bottom line, Mark Whitacre is a pathological liar who, in reality, really is (and really did) blowing the lid off one of the largest price fixing scandals in American history. But what is in it for him? What is he hiding?  Why is his narrating mostly off-topic, almost detached from the present reality?  And, most importantly, why does he wind up in jail with a sentence 3 times longer than his crooked bosses?

The answer is confusing, and troubling as is the story leading up to the answer. It is hard to keep what is truth and what is fiction straight. Most of the beginning of the movie are the inner thoughts of Damon’s Whitacre, which as I mentioned earlier offer no real narrative to what is happening in the present, which does make it easy to get distracted or even completely lost from the story altogether. But I would suggest you power through the confusion as the dust does settle, albeit slowly yet surely throughout the movie.  And once you are “in” on it, you pick up on the sheer absurdness of the situation and the character. I mean, this stuff REALLY happened and this guy is real!  Its almost funny if you think about it, and  Steven Soderbergh has thought about it. The film direction picks up every mundane, normal aspect of Whitacre. This contrast of the reality of Whitacre’s personality and actions heightens the confusion, but also the humor in the story.

I say if you read up on the real life situation and the real life Whitacre, it wouldn’t act as a spoiler, it would almost help you understand and appreciate it more. I mean we all knew that the Titanic sank before we saw the movie right? If you ARE interested in the story, I suggest you listen to the story This American Life aired 10 years ago. It is a fascinating story and a fascinating movie with a terrific cast!