The Informant!

Finally, a thoughtful, well-played flick you can sink your intelligence into. It's been a long summer of slick 3-D animated flicks, sci-fi dramas aimed at prepubescent minds, a couple chick flicks, and one half-baked drama saved only by well-seasoned actors. As crisp and fresh as the recent early morning dew, director Steven Soderbergh gives us a smart and funny story that opens up like a well tended late blooming rose. In The Informant! Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre a corporate whistle-blower who is, or isn't, more than he appears to be. Scott Bakula is FBI Special Agent Brian Shepard to whom Whitacre "confides" his corporate secrets. We are made privy to the inner workings of Whitacre's mind via a stream-of-consciousness voice-over by Damon. Surprisingly, this technique doesn't distract from what's happening on screen. However, the wigs that Damon and Bakula sport, do. Which is all a part of the "joke" in this somewhat off-beat comedy based on the true story of an Archer Daniels Midland executive who supplied information to the FBI in a price-fixing investigation. I enjoyed this thoughtful, believable, quirky film. See it now or rent it later. P. S. You might recognize Melanie Lynskey, who plays Whitacre's supportive wife, from TV's Two and a Half Men.
Check it out...Other great films about corporate whistle-blowing, The Insider, Silkwood, and The Firm (which is mentioned in Whitacre's "self talk") can be borrowed from the Nesmith Library on DVD.

Poster courtesy of MSN Movies