DVD: "The Informant!"

Matt Damon's Mark "Corky" Whittaker is a happy, lucky, corporate guy. Colorful ties, tan suits. In his dealings with other people, Whittaker is affable, agreeable, persuasive. In his head, however, there's a running, diarrhetic stream of interesting ice-breakers he never uses; he's too familiar with the way conversations with his Boss, his Co-workers, even his Wife, should conform to really let himself go. (At one point, Whittaker thinks, "Polar bears cover their noses before they pounce on a seal. How do polar bears know their noses are black? Did they look in the water one day, see their reflection and say, ‘Man, I’d be invisible if it wasn’t for that thing'... That's a lot of thinking for a bear".)He's a creative guy, very interested in the details of what's going on around him; these, too, he keeps to himself, to his own eventual detriment.



Soderberg's "The Informant!" views Whittaker as a pathologically splintered individual. It's not until his job forces him to take on a third self, however, that his world begins to tip its axis. The film is the true story of a guy who, for no explicitly discernible reason, decided one day to expose his company's crimes, and then set out to single-handedly gather all of the intelligence needed to do so. Whittaker spied on and taped his bosses and the bosses of several other companies for two and a half years. In that time, he lost his ability to maintain an idea of objective reality.

But the character's reality too closely mirrors "real" reality for others to view him as suffering from "real" mental illness. Because he presents well, appears (for the most part) happy and engaged, and seems to mostly know what he's doing, we buy him as a "regular guy."

It isn't until a third or so of the way into the movie that it becomes clear that Whittaker's completely bonkers. He lies all the time, to everyone he comes into contact with, about everything, even when there's no reason to lie. The anecdote about the magazine story about the polar bear? Think about it for a second. He's lying to himself!

Whittaker's story could've gone tragic, or even tragicomic. But it didn't! It stays true to where its protagonist's at, and is a pretty happy little movie.

Thank you, nice movie! Smiley emoticon here!