The Informant!

The Informant! is the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a scientist, VP, and whistleblower at the giant agri-business food additive company Archer Daniels Midland, which specializes in using corn to take over the world. This is the funniest suspense movie I’ve ever seen. It’s also the most suspenseful comedy I’ve ever seen, and I realize how off-putting that sounds. But this is a very serious movie spanning ten-plus years and several continents. Remember how in Fletch and Beverly Hills Cop, the drama was played straight, but the comedy worked at an even higher level? Well, The Informant! achieves both and is more ambitious than either. Scott Burns both adapted The Informant! and The Bourne Identity scripts from novels, but liberties are taken here with the source material.

Mark Whitacre specializes in creating lysine. Lysine is a derivative of corn that can be added to most farmed foods from shrimp and chicken to breakfast cereals and sodas to make them larger, sweeter, or cheaper to produce. Because of his specific skill set, he is brought from the laboratory into the boardroom, and his ambition’s grabbed hold of him when the story begins. A corn-borne virus has taken hold of the lysine crop, costing his company millions of dollars per day. Whitacre’s job is on the line, so he invents a story involving a Japanese competitor and an industrial spy who has infiltrated the company, installed the corn-borne virus, and clandestinely offered to sell an antidote, thus ensuring the lysine crop, for ten million dollars.

Whitacre is shocked when the head of corporate security and the FBI become involved and is soon forced to admit to the agents that he invented the corporate spy story to cover his own mistakes. In apology for his lie, he offers the FBI agents proof of his company’s continuing involvement in a very real global conspiracy to control the price of food by controlling the price of corn. Whitacre believes that uncovering this plot will make him a hero and leave him in position to take over the company. It’s from his oblivious nature that the comedy is derived, and the story unfolds in a series of reveals that is both hilarious and procedural.

Warner Brothers‘ marketing campaign has done the film a minor disservice, though, by playing up the comedy so much. The facts contained in this film are very serious and very real. The film suggests what many of us have believed for a very long time: that the industrial farming of corn and the corn lobby in Washington D.C. has conspired to ruin the health of Americans. If you’ve ever tasted the difference in an American Coke made with high-fructose corn syrup, and a Mexican (or even a Kosher) Coke made with cane sugar, then you’re on the right track.

Now, in case you have seen the promos for The Informant! and you think that I’m reading too much into this goofy movie, believe me, I’m not. I dare you to go to Amazon or Wikipedia and look into the book on which this film is based, or even read up on the news story as it appeared in newspapers nationwide. (The movie is based on a true story.) Director Steven Soderbergh explores the Corn Conspiracy as fervently as Oliver Stone did the JFK assassination, and even amidst the constant and successful humor, it’s chilling. The thought actually crossed my mind that the filmmakers were taking risks with their safety.

Critics have compared The Informant! to The Usual Suspects, and that’s fair because of its intricate plot and the piece-by-piece revelations offered throughout the film, adding up to an incredible conclusion. And if you’ve ever been even slightly suspicious of all of the high-fructose corn syrup in your diet, then don’t miss The Informant!. (!)

Running Time 108 minutes; Rated R. Starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, Scott Bakula as Special Agent Brian Shepard, Bob Herndon as Special Agent Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey as Ginger Whitacre, with a special appearance by The Smothers Brothers. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Produced by Gregory Jacobs, Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein, and Kurt Eichenwald. Written by Scott Z. Burns, based on the novel by Kurt Eichenwald. Score by Marvin Hamlisch. Cinematography by Steven Soderbergh.