The Informant

The Informant


Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, and Scott Bakula

MPAA: Rated R for language.

The Informant is as quirky and fun as Ocean’s 11. It doesn’t have the star power of the Oceans trilogy, but it beats the living heck out of 12 and 13 (I guess that is not saying much though). It is a winner all the way around. It is the first of three true stories I have watched today and my wife and I just couldn’t believe it’s veracity it was so outrageous. If you liked The Informant than go check out Find Me Guilty, because it is another quirky true story that will make you bust a gut laughing. This is The Office meets Oceans 11 without the heist. It also reminds me a little of Fight Club when we get Edward Norton’s monologues during the film. Matt Damon does something similar in The Informant. Discussions can be going on around him that seem to have some relevance to what is happening but the audience doesn’t get to hear them, instead Matt Damon’s character talks in his head about French ties and trying to get them into the States without declaring them at customs. It is really quite hilarious. “I am Mikal’s odd sense of humor!”(Fight Club joke!)

The whole movie can best be summed up as quirky. Matt Damon’s character is a genius, and Damon carries it out flawlessly. Half the time the audience is not sure who is being played. This is definitely a new character for Damon, he is not the silent Linus from Ocean’s nor is he the muscle bound Bourne, instead we see a returning to elements used in Good Will Hunting, as this brilliant character tries to stay afloat in the company he is slowly burning to the ground. He is like Will Hunting because he has enormous charisma that seems to charm everyone, and he also has a propensity for lying his butt off. I think Damon added some weight and definitely lost some sense of style as he took us back 20 years to early 90s corporate America.

I can see why this move didn’t go as mainstream as others in Soderbergh’s library. It is a film geared for adults, thus the R rating. If it had been rated PG-13 than it would have looked like a film for younger audiences, and it just plain isn’t interesting to a 13 year old audience. The swearing in the film is pretty mild, so it seems the rating was put there only to limit the audience a little, which is okay because we are all adults here right. I guess this is just another example, like It’s Complicated, of how the MPAA is a little bit ridiculous in its rating system.

The Informant is hilarious, but it also has some sad and serious moments which serve to balance the film. It gives it a little bit more of a realistic edge to it, and it feels a lot more believable because of it. The script is hilarious, and Damon’s acting is great as well. I don’t have any complaints really about this film at all. It was well thought out and well put together. The Informant is not the best film you’ll see this year but it is well worth the time to watch it. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10.

Sex/Nudity – None –no kissing, no sex, a little sexual dialogue; a reference to a co worker and how attractive she was and it was a shame she was getting married.

Violence/Gore – None

Profanity – 6 out of 10 – About 6 “F” words, maybe one or two more, but most of them are said in the back ground and without subtitles on there would be no way to know they were said. There were about 20 other uses of the “S” word, “A” word, and a few other mild obscenities.