Monday, August 31, 2015

The Informant! (2009)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Writers: Scott Z. Burns, Kurt Eichenwald

Composer: Marvin Hamlisch

Starring: Matt Damon, Lucas McHugh Carroll, Thomas F. Wilson, Scott Bakula, Ann Dowd, Allan Havey, Ann Cusack, Tom Smothers, Clancy Brown, Patton Oswalt, Dick Smothers

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Based on a tattle-tale

Plot: The U.S. government decides to go after an agro-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president-turned-informant Mark Whitacre.



My rating:

Will I watch it again? No.

Have you ever watched a movie and felt like the film makers came 'this close' to nailing it but you can't think of what it would've taken to cross the finish line with flying colors? This is such a film for me.  I enjoyed it.  The performances were good, Marvin Hamlisch's score fit the light tone for the picture (his final score before his death in 2012), the pacing is fine and the story is super interesting.  It's one of those onion tales with lots of layers and you find out more and more from the lies Whitacre (Damon) stacks on top of one another.  Perhaps Soderbergh & Co. wanted us to feel just as deceived as the characters around Whitacre which might explain that feeling I have of this just missing the mark.  Maybe I was hoping to see more of a George Costanza from SEINFELD who makes me cringe when he gets deeper and deeper into his lies.  Perhaps I wanted that feeling in Whitacre which would bring me closer to him or at least give me some feelings about his situation.  It's not as cringe-worthy as I thought it should be after it was all over.  Still, it's a great story and everyone involved with the picture does a fine job.  Shockingly, the Warner Bros. DVD has only 6.5 minutes of deleted scenes for extras and that's it.  I expected more considering the story.  

No comments:

Post a Comment