The Informant!: A whistleblower turns defendant

There are many instances where films made on true life events are captivating and made splendidly. However, there are even more instances where such films based on true stories do not quite work out and end up being just average efforts on the part of the filmmaker. Quite often, this can depend on the story which forms the base of the script and how interesting the true events were, and the way in which the director chooses to make the film in the end. Such is a case with director Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 film The Informant!, the story for which is derived from a book based on true events.

Mark Whitacre was a Corporate Vice President with lysine developing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in 1992. When he informs his superiors of a case of corporate espionage involving his own company, they decide to approach the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to smoke out the mole and arrest the culprits who are blackmailing the company. Things turn hilariously unprecedented when Mark himself confesses to the FBI agents of his company’s involvement in international price fixing scandals and agrees to be an informant to the FBI thereby making himself a mole in the company. Mark informs the agents that his company’s top executives, as well as himself, would meet with competitors to fix the price and volume of the products being manufactured. The FBI agents now ask Mark to collect evidence against his bosses which requires him to go through inconvenient situations like wearing a wire, tapping phone conversations and video recording meetings involving international executives. Mark struggles to deal with his desire to help the FBI, show loyalty to his company, manage his family and sort out his personal hidden agenda as the story goes on.

The film has several twists and turns which come about through revelations made by the characters. The protagonist in the form of Mark Whitacre is an exceptionally neurotic character which is revealed in due course of the film. The film has a first-person narration during its entire course which is provided by the protagonist. Although narration is considered a faux-pas in filmmaking, the format used in this film does not aid the storytelling process but is mostly random musings on the part of the character. As the film goes on, it is evident that the character cannot be trusted because of the situations in the story and the increasing randomness and patchy intervals at which the narration occurs. As such, the narration helps with the comedic effect of the film and helps establish the confused identity of the protagonist. The narration eventually makes the audience lose its previous apathy for the protagonist which is later replaced with bemusement at his chosen course of action.

The Informant! isn’t a particularly splendid film. It is an average turn out from Steven Soderbergh from a twisting case that started with a whistleblower.