The Informant!
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
- drama
- comedy
- crime
The story
A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion.
What it’s like
Bright, flat, office-park daylight over Midwestern corporate interiors, with Soderbergh's habit of pulling the frame back to show empty beige hallways and hotel rooms that feel like waiting rooms. The palette is washed and slightly sickly, all pale yellows, drab carpets and corn-field browns, and a restless handheld quality keeps the camera close to a man who cannot stop talking. Marvin Hamlisch's bouncy, retro-jazz score, all plinking piano and sly little flourishes, undercuts every tense moment with a grin, so the sound feels like a cheerful lie being told in a bright room. Vibe: deadpan, sun-bleached absurdity with a faint edge of unease. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a quick laugh on a night in, or a watch with someone who enjoys dry, unreliable narrators. Pacing is loose and chatty, with long stretches of talk, and the emotional register stays wry and detached while following a man whose self-regard keeps outrunning reality, a gradual unravelling beneath a confident surface. Violence is rare and mostly offscreen, with some brief, unsettling moments of menace and occasional mild profanity and sexual talk; it is not gory. For people who like smart, slightly cynical comedy about corporate greed and self-deception, and who don't need a clear hero.
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