"Truth is stranger than fiction" is definitely the case in The Informant. Matt Damon portrays Mark Whitacre, a bi-polar executive at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) company in the early 1990s. Whitacre is a real person, and this is a true story. Whitacre seems to have very good business acumen, but otherwise he lives in a reality defined by the lies that he makes up for himself and others
about who he is, what he does, how other people will behave, and what are the likely outcomes of his activities.
To cover a problem he is having at work, Whitacre invents a saboteur who is preventing him from producing the goods. To his great surprise, this brings in the FBI. So, he must invent new lies to deal with them, and reveals one staggering truth about price-fixing at ADM. As the movie skillfully layers one piece of the story on top of the next, we soon see that this is going to be a train wreck for everyone involved, including the FBI.
This is a well written, well directed picture with excellent performances that is well worth your time. |