Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Melanie Lynskey, Joel McHale
Director: Steven Soderbergh (the Ocean’s 11 franchise, Erin Brockovich)
Running Time: 1 hr 48 min
Release Date: Sept. 18, 2009
Budget: $22 million
Average Critics’ Score: 73%
“Its got deliciously audacious and cheeky tenor.” Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
“It’s overextended and exhaustingly comic.” Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
In this refreshing and quirky timely comedy-drama, Damon swaps his normally good looks for an unappealing mustache, dorky glasses, the addition of 30 pounds and an awful toupee, but meanwhile he brilliantly transforms himself into a captivating and lovably delusional man. For instance, the inner monologue he voices makes for some particularly absurd, yet strangely smart commentaries. Based on a true-account, he plays Mark Whitacre, a high-ranking exec who turns the agri-industry conglomerate for which he works into the FBI for a price-fixing conspiracy. The story gets a bit confusing as The Informant! slowly unravels the man behind the mustache, but that’s also part of the fun.
