The Talented Mr. Whitacre

I laughed audibly at the trailer of “The Informant!” for two reasons. One: it was funny. Two: Matt Damon’s character Mark Whitacre looks and sounds exactly like the head of the ad/promo department where I work. Mostly, though, I laughed because it was funny. It looked like a lighthearted movie (a true story!) about an awkward, inept businessman bumbling around in an important FBI investigation, reminiscent, perhaps, of last year’s “Burn After Reading.” I liked that one.

However, “The Informant!” misses “funny” by a few kilometers—and “lighthearted” by a few more. Despite the playful title fonts and Whitacre’s ridiculous arsenal of horrifying neckwear, one couldn’t help but sense a seriousness to the movie. It was perplexing on several levels. The audience is never quite sure exactly what’s going on; Whitacre himself is morally ambiguous and unlikeable; the “truth” keeps changing; the cognitive narration is full of loony non-sequiturs; and you’re watching a tubby Jason Bourne throw hissy fits in a bad suit. (Seriously, who cast him? Who looks at the real-life Whitacre and thinks, “Oh, Matt Damon would be perfect.” Fucking genius.)

The movie is branded as a comedy, but I heard not one person in the theater laugh out loud. In fact, several people walked out, presumably upset over being misled by the amusing little trailer. Really, we expect some laughs and some wit, and what we get was an infuriating look at bipolar disorder, which in this case has manifested itself as chronic, compulsive lying. I say “infuriating” because we start off really rooting for Mr. Whitacre. He’s trying to do the right thing, trying to take down the “evil corporation” even if it means sacrificing his own welfare, risking his reputation and his job for the good of the everyman. Mr. Whitacre he believes in something, and that’s admirable. But then as the movie goes on, we find out a few more things. And then a few more. And then a few more. And we feel very, very betrayed.

The whole thing feels like a bad divorce. A really long, bad divorce. The movie, aside from the voice-over musing about random stuff and the offensively hideous ties, is decidedly un-fun. That is not to say, however, that it isn’t interesting. Director Steven Soderbergh is not a dumb man. He knew what he was doing making this movie. There is no question in my mind that we feel betrayed because he wanted us to feel betrayed.

“The Informant!” as I mentioned, is based on a true story, and it’s one that you’d want to tell because it’s just so crazy. But it’s something we may not be ready to listen to. We like heroes. He didn’t give us one. We like tragedies too. But he didn’t really give us one of those either. In a typical tragic arc, the hero builds himself up, makes a bad decision, and falls. In this movie, Mr. Whitacre builds himself up, then falls, but we find out that he was a jerk to begin with. What does one do with that?

This movie—and I’m going to call it now—will really divide people. It’s very smart and very resistant to classification, but anyone going in looking for laughs is going to be disappointed. You know, what they should do is give out pre-nups at the ticket window. Because you’re in for the long haul, and it’s not going to go well.