Starring Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Tom Papa
In the early 1990s, biochemist Mark Whitacre has been moving up the ladder at food industry giant ADM, having been brought over into the business side of things. After getting a call from a foreign competitor offering a cure to a virus that affect the company's products for the price of $7M - the exact amount that Whitacre also notes is suddenly missing from the company - he tells his boss Mick Andreas about it and the FBI soon get involved, tapping Whitacre's business home line in case the competitor calls again. While he's working with the FBI, Whitacre also informs them of unethical business practices that ADM and other international food industry giants are involved in, most notably being price fixing. Serving as the FBI's mole, Whitacre records hundreds of tapes in which company heads discuss and agree on various price fixes. Once it's learned that he was the mole though, the company fights back, digging up dirt on Whitacre that could not only cost him his job, home and luxuries, but also cause him to serve jail time as well.
Based on a true story, The Informant was quite interesting, most especially for me as it takes place in Decatur, IL (not far from me) and involves the food industry in the 90's (which was the industry my dad worked in at the time). However, presented in all the trailers as a quirky comedy, this movie was anything but. While there were some laughs, they were few and far between, as we watch a man get used by his government while he's lost in his own made up delusions.
Unless you like films based on true stories, feel free to skip this one.
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