Blu-ray Review: The Informant!

Release Date: February 23rd, 2010
Running Time: 108 minutes

The Film

Matt Damon is a major Hollywood talent who continues to reinvent his career through careful, unexpected role choices. From Good Will Hunting to The Talented Mr. Ripley to The Bourne Identity, you never know what he will do next. He is the type of actor who gets better and better as the years go on and he exposes new layers of skill. Needless to say, when I saw a bloated, goofball Damon on the poster of The Informant! I was hardly surprised. Based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald, The Informant! is another entry for Damon’s highlight reel but the same can’t be said for the Blu-ray disc.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film stars Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, a high-up suit in the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) corporation. As the title suggests, Mark becomes an informant for FBI agents Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) and Robert Herndon (Joel McHale) who pursue a case against ADM beginning in 1992. Mark, an oddball who gives the audience an intimate look at his thought process through narration, is all too happy to condemn his co-workers. Over years he wears wires, sets people up in meetings, and takes endless recordings to prove ADM is involved in a price-fixing scam.

However, as time passes the FBI begins to realize that Mark may not be the innocent helper bee that they thought. Damning evidence becomes increasingly linked to Mark himself, threatening to destroy the FBI’s case. But Mark never gives up. He keeps spinning his web of lies, bringing the audience along in his whirlwind as he becomes more unstable and erratic due to the FBI picking apart his life. But beneath all of the lies one question remains–who is the real Mark Whitacre?

The Informant! has a very unique feel and couldn’t be farther from something like The Insider. The strangely comedic tone that comes from having an unreliable, quirky narrator separates the film from its heavy-handed genre brethren.
Whitacre is a polarizing character, causing audiences to simultaneously sympathize with and despise him. He is relatable but as a reflection of our worst qualities, and that’s where the comedy comes from. Seeing inside the frumpy Whitacre’s mind as he takes the FBI, and the audience, on a rollercoaster of lies inevitably causes you to laugh at the sheer absurdity of his constant web of deception.

Simply put, the entire film hinges on Matt Damon’s performance. He undergoes a massive transformation, dropping his good looks and suave nature to embrace the sheer normalcy of the character. Whitacre manipulates everyone around him under a goofball guise that even fools the audience through his comedic thought process. However, eventually everything begins to unwind, and that is when this character study takes its most interesting turns. Are we still being played? Is Whitacre’s degeneration just another act? It wouldn’t be a Soderbergh film if you got any definitive, pleasing answers.

The Informant! is a unique, manipulative film with an amazing lead performance and a strangely whimsical tone all crafted with deliberate precision by Soderbergh. Though not for everyone, it is a welcome new take on the whistle blower genre that is usually so depressingly heavy-handed.

The Disc

The video is presented in an unassuming but acceptable 1.78:1, 1080p High Definition transfer. The image is heavily stylized with filters to achieve Soderbergh’s desired period look. Colors are natural, featuring a lot of oranges and beiges, but they are never saturated to the point of having much pop. Blacks and whites are fully realized without many problems. The level of final detail is all over the board due to the visual style. Textures and depth vary, and while it is better than standard definition, it is a far cry from the immense detail that the format can product. Some compression artifacts and shadow crush dampen the image as well. This is a very difficult transfer to grade because it is often unclear if the “errors” are stylistic or the fault of the transfer. Regardless, the image still feels very fitting for the film.

The audio is offered in an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 master lossless audio track and English/French/Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with English/French/Spanish subtitles. This is a front-heavy mix that barely uses the subwoofer or rear channels. There is almost nothing about the story that makes us of, or calls for, directional or panning effects. Dialogue tends to be clean and balanced, but the atmosphere of certain scenes can muddle it somewhat. Easily the best aspect of the mix is the crisp, robust score that perfectly complements the tone of the film. Overall this is a minimalist mix, but what is offered features detailed, clean sound design.

The Extras

The Blu-ray has a pretty sparse selection of special features.

Commentary is offered with Director Steven Soderbergh and Screenwriter Scott Burns. Because of Burns’ large role in the production he is an excellent complement to Soderbergh. The two cover pretty much everything you’d want to know: the original source material, the adaptation process, casting, and plenty of scene-specific production notes. Since there are no behind-the-scenes featurettes, this is a must-listen for anyone who wants to know the story behind the film.

Four Deleted Scenes (6 minutes) are offered: You Don’t Really Need to Narrate the Tapes; Leaf Blower at Night; Mark Makes Some Odd Requests of the FBI; and Mark Escorted out of ADM Offices. The scenes are all pretty good so I’m guessing they were cut for time. At only 6 minutes long, these are definitely worth a watch.

Lastly a disc is offered that contains the SD version of the film and a Digital Copy.

Final Thoughts

The Informant! is a quirky take on the whistle blower genre that is 100% Soderbergh backed by the brilliance of Matt Damon. Unfortunately a sparse Blu-ray that fails to wow from a technical standpoint makes it tough to recommend a purchase, but fans of Soderbergh or Damon should at least rent this fun title.