The Informant, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in US history. But those expecting The Insider Part 2 might be a little taken aback by the film's brazenly comic tone.

Matt Damon put on 30 pounds and a moustache to play Mark Whitacre, a top exec at an agricultural conglomerate that's engaging in a multinational price-fixing scam. Set in the early 80s, the film tracks Whitacre as he volunteers to spill the beans about his company's malpractices to the FBI, and even agrees to help them with their investigation by becoming a sort of secret agent himself, wearing a wire and conducting meetings in conference rooms rigged with hidden cameras. Even as the feds crack the case, they're shocked to discover that Whitacre himself has embezzled over $9 million from corporate coffers.

A dark comedy that breezily unfolds itself to reveal Whitacre's outrageous lies, The Informant is that rare gem of a movie that surprises you at every turn. The film's biggest strength is Matt Damon's comic tour de force as the slippery fish that's hard to figure out - is he a noble man driven by a good conscience, a pathological liar, a wannabe secret agent, or a mentally sick person? The answer's not so easy to arrive at. It is to the actor's credit that he never loses sight of the man behind the lies, and plays Whitacre as a mysteriously odd fellow.

Packed with appropriately deadpan performances from a superb ensemble cast, The Informant is in the end, a sardonic comedy about an unsympathetic hero.

I'm going with three-and-a-half out of five for The Informant. Soderbergh takes a serious story about unforgivable crimes and serves it up in a style that can only be described as hilarious. Watch it, because films like this are hard to find.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Veteran director Steven Soderbergh who's well known for the Ocean series returns here with a pretty good dark comedy drama that's based on a true story, yet it's realness is overshadowed by humor and comedy. Veteran and now well rounded actor Matt Damon teams back up with Steven as Damon stars as the central character and somewhat anti-hero Mark Whitacre who as a biochemist for a processing giant ADM(Archer Daniels Midland)exposes the greed and dirty corruption as he blows the whistle on the company's alleged global price fixing methods.

Set in Illinois taking place from the early 90's till the story wraps up in 2006, you see that from the get go that Mark Whitacre is well rounded, a married family man hard working successful yet a mind wandering oddball who's intelligent and he has plans to expose the top company brass. So he gets in touch with the FBI and goes undercover as he's wired for sounds and even tapes meetings for the feds. It was nice to see TV veteran Scott Bakula as the head agent in charge of the case. Anyway this even though a spy film Soderbergh blends the drama and suspense with slapstick humor and funny lines all of which feed off of Damon's crazy character. As some watch they may even classify his undercover work as somewhat cartoon like along the lines of say the agent from "Get Smart". Still you as the viewer even with the humor and joke intersection are intrigued by observations of searching for the truth.

And you as the viewer want answers especially when it involves exposing corporate crime, the truth takes a spin, yet really it wasn't that surprising considering the mind and wandering thoughts of Matt Damon's character. Even though Mark has committed wrong doing you cheer for him as he fights the big top dog corporate brass. Overall "The Informant!" is a well done film with a top notch performance from Matt Damon who's now a sharp polished actor, I cheer for the film's telling of the real life tale of corporate fraud and corruption which relates to the times so well with banking, wall street and company scandal. Still with Hollywood the films are always blended different which with this vehicle Soderbergh went a little bit to much with the humor and comedy. Still it proves that just when you think you know the truth other lies are exposed and scandals are plenty yet need to be revealed.