If that goofy looking deer-in-the headlights image of Matt Damon suggests his role in The Informant is as the quintessential nerd, that would be an accurate assumption.
His pocket protector persona rings true as he shuffles through papers and graphs, confers with a factory worker then declares there is a spy in the company intent on destroying their production of an important product. This mythical espionage occurs at the Archer Daniel Midland Company in Decatur Illinois.
In this true story, adapted from the book by Kurt Eichenwald, Damon’s character, Mark Whitacre, a PhD from Cornell University in nutritional biochemistry, insists the mole needs to be revealed. At his wife’s urging, the FBI is contacted and a sting arrangement is set up. But other secrets emerge. He confesses to FBI agent Brain Shepard (Scott Bakula) that ADM’s top executives are meeting with competitors on every continent to fix the price of lysine, a food additive used throughout the world. Whitacre becomes the FBI’s whistle blower and records and reports to the them for more than three years.
Gradually, other irregularities appear and both the FBI and corporate executives are puzzled. Whitacre starts melting down under pressure of constantly wearing a wire and more strange stories emerge. Checks drafted to Whitacre for huge amounts of money become known and it becomes clear he has been defrauding the company while recording executives in their fraudulent activity.
This curious turn of affairs sends him to therapy and in a session the doctor asks if he has ever had bi-polar relatives. This explains the rationale for his incessant mumbling as he goes about his numerous roles. He speculates about the most inane topics. He seems to take comfort moving into the world he’s discussing as it lets him escape from his present situation and perhaps get relief. He also reveals he made up the story about the spy.
Headlines reported that he defrauded $9 million from ADM while blowing the whistle on the executives he was taping. This peculiar theft ordered him to serve prison time three times longer than those he helped nab.
Eichenwald wrote Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story. That book traced the downfall of Enron. There seems to be plenty of material floating around on the current scene for Eichenwald to construct another gripping narrative. FYI – Damon gained more than thirty pounds for the role of Whitacre. It opens Friday.
