The Informant

“The Informant!” is based on a true story. During the mid 1990’s, ADM (Archer Midland Daniels), one of the largest corporations in the United States at that time, consipired with a number of other competitors to control the pricing of a product called Lysine. I don’t anything about Lysine but according to the film, it is used in a tremendous amount of products such as vitamins, soda and others consumed by many people every day.  Keeping the prices high adds up to millions of dollars in greater profits and huge executive kick-backs.

I’m not sure where to begin on this film. It is both a dead pan and zany film dominated by Matt Damon who plays Mark Whitacre, the real-life whistle blower who exposes the price fixing scheme to the FBI.


There is no grit or action to this movie. The movie feels more like a white collar office parody film than a crime comedy. Executives gossip around the office, travel first class, have meetings in exotic locations and seem to have virtually no job responsibilities.   It made me wonder, with a job like that, why bother being corrupt at all? Sounds like a dream job.

The comedy is ironic, subtle, and completely relies on Whitakers oblivious, compulsive lying, which isn't always all that hilarious.  It moves along at its own laid back, midwestern pace and eventually ADM’s corruption is exposed along with some of Whitakers illegal activities as well.

At times this film was a little hard to follow. I couldn’t tell even up to the end if there was true corruption in ADM or if Whitaker was making this all up. I suppose at times I was confused a bit but I can be dopey like that.

I’m glad I saw the film but overall it isn’t something I’d recommend. If you are looking for another film like “Office Space” except something that takes itself more seriously, you might like this film.

For more information on The Informant! Or how to get it click below to go to Amazon's secure site

Another Post By TurtleDog

Do you enjoy biographies? This documentary about the famed beatnik author Jack Kerouac wasn't bad at all. I wrote a review of this bio-documentary of Kerouac. Check it out.