The Informant!

Running Time: An hour and 45 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Mark Whitacre is a man compelled by his vices. On top of hard work and a positive attitude, he extorts, lies, and steals to reach the top of the corporate ladder. The path to professional success seems to be laid out for him when he learns information that could incriminate the whole of his superiors at Archer Daniels Midland, leaving their management positions open for his taking. However, when the FBI becomes involved, Mark’s greedy and compulsive behavior threatens to destroy what was one of the most famous investigations of the 1990s and the largest corporate whistleblower case in history.

The Informant tries to pass itself off as a comedy, but most of the laughs stem from his narrated idle thoughts and the film’s oddly upbeat music selection. Without these playful additions, the movie could have been a pretty straightforward historical drama. “Historical” is used loosely, of course, but skewed and added details are to be expected from any movie that claims itself to be “based on a true story”.

The plot can become a bit muddled to the audience as we are as oblivious to what is fact or fib as the people onscreen. While sometimes confusing, it can often be amusing when the characters’ baffled and incredulous reactions to Mark’s behavior mirror our own.

The movie drags on a bit around the epilogue, but is, overall, enjoyable. It is a must-see for people who either followed the case or read the book from which this movie was adapted, but those who don’t fall into either of those categories will find that the world will go on just the same if The Informant is skipped over.

Actual Rating: PG-13

There is no violence, no sex, no drugs, not even any rock & roll. This movie caught an R rating from the MPAA simply because it used “the f-word” a few more times than what is allotted to a PG-13 movie.