The Informant!

This is a odd and interesting movie. It probably works best as a comedy, but the tone reminded me a lot of "Fargo." Dark comedy where you laugh at the characters, but never so much that you disconnect from the story. Matt Damon is an Archer Daniels Midland executive who turns into an FBI informant, blowing the whistle about a global price-fixing scheme. His moments as a bumbling secret agent are definitely the best part of the film. Scott Bakula is a great straight man foil to his increasing idiosyncratic actions. Eventually, however, the film shifts. We find out that Damon's character has been embezzling from the company. And the depths of his deception slowly unravel everything he's done and eventually take him down. This part of the movie wasn't as compelling to me, in part because it didn't seem to have the same drive as the first act. But it's where Damon's performance really turns into something that's less comic and more intense. And his relationship with Bakula also becomes a lot more intriguing. But there were a number of scenes in the row where we just saw him continuing to lie and while it may have been true to the real story, it felt repetitive here.