I went into The Informant! unfamiliar with the true account of Mark Whitacre, and I feel the film would have been completely different had I not been. Soderbergh’s script gains most of its interest from keeping the audience guessing about what is really going on, and knowing the answers would have made the experience of getting to know Whitacre completely different.

Whitacre works for ADM, a leading manufacturer of corn-based products in the U.S. When the film opens, Whitacre informs his superiors that a Japanese competitor is responsible for a virus that has ruined their recent lysine production, and is blackmailing the company for millions for a cure. ADM contacts the FBI to investigate, and when the agents arrive, Whitacre informs them that the blackmail is nothing compared to what else is going on at ADM: global price-fixing.

This begins the film’s actual premise, in which Whitacre works with the FBI to expose the illegal activity of his colleagues. Damon’s Whitacre comes across as bumbling and incompetent, always a moment away from sabotaging the entire investigation. But as the film progresses, we learn more about Whitacre – or rather, we learn we knew less about him than we thought we did at the start.

By the time the film ended, and knowing all the plot spoilers, I couldn’t help but wonder if the film might have been better if it weren’t a comedy. I’m not saying the subject matter was too bleak for comedy – dark c omedies are better with bleak material – but the with the way the script was structured, the ending didn’t have the punchline a comedy needs. And the film never builds up the suspense of a thriller, partly because Soderbergh’s comedy is based on revealing the espionage as farce.

Matt Damon gives another not-quite-Oscar-worthy performance as the enigmatic fool, Mark Whitacre. He perfectly fits the tone of Soderbergh’s film, with his awkward hair, bushy moustache, and darting bespectacled eyes. You’re never quite sure if Whitacre knows what he’s doing or not, if he’s intentionally putting the investigation at risk, or if he’s a hopeless idealist in over his head. And as the film goes on, and we learn more about Whitacre, we still aren’t sure exactly what his motivations are. It’s this ambiguity of his intentions that drives the latter portions of the film, much more than the possibility that the FBI investigation might not succeed.

Soderbergh casts primarily sitcom actors and stand-up comics in the supporting roles. Whitacre’s frustrated lawyer is played by Tony Hale of Arrested Development, the FBI agent by Scott Bakula from The New Adventures of Old Christine, Whitacre’s wife is Melanie Lynskey of Two and a Half Men, Scott Adsit of 30 Rock, and so on. Soderbergh does not use anyone but Damon for sitcom-level comedy, and if you didn’t already recognize them, you wouldn’t guess the cast had a comedy background. Rather, in almost every scene, the supporting cast plays it straight, acting confused and overwhelmed by Damon’s blunders.

Soderbergh uses a yellowed color palette, both evocative of ADM’s corn products and the retro feel of the film itself. This retro effect is further intensified by a slight frosting to the overexposed areas of the frame, such as when we see white sunlight coming in from a window while inside. (Image 9) It’s not as pronounced an effect as the retro feel of Grindhouse, but when added to the other stylistic oddities, it helps establish the film as a bouncy comedy. Aside from this, there was nothing noteworthy about the cinematography.

The choice to use retro elements in The Informant! (including the exclamation point on the title) is one I can see no other use for than Soderbergh wanted to keep the tone of the film light. How else might an audience know that this is in fact a comedy, and not an corporate espionage film like The Insider? The film opens with an introductory quote that stipulates that, although based on fact, details and dialogue has been changed to be more dramatic. The quote ends, “So there.” The many locations and times of the film are announced by fluorescent bubble-lettered graphics, reminiscent of the 70’s, and the film itself is scored in a homage to the exploitation, instructional, and crime films of that era. Even the way everyone dresses feels dated, from their obsessions with bad ties to Damon’s fluffed hair and moustache. Add to that the yellowed cinematography, and you have what amounts to a period piece – if it weren’t for the dates themselves being from the early 90’s to modern day.

But it’s a comedy, and this retro-fun works the same way it works with Alexander Payne’s Election, a film I was reminded of in style when watching The Informant!

Damon’s physical transformation is not impressive enough to qualify as spectacle, and the retro style isn’t as evolved as contemporaries like Tarentino, so I fail to find anything particularly new or revolutionary about The Informant!