imdb link PhotosPlot: This is a dry, wry comedy about fraud at the agricultural products company ADM in the 1990's. Mark Whitacre, Matt Damon, is a vice-president at ADM and he gets involved in a price fixing scheme. It turns out that Matt is also a schemer, a very strange dude, and not so mentally stable. Mark calls FBI agent Brian Shepard, Scott Bakula, who begins to collect evidence against ADM, and Mark agrees to bug his conversations. After the arrest, the story gets more complicated and it is unclear how believable Mark really is.
The best thing about this is that it is a movie about a chemist in the chemicals industry -- though a biochemist and an agrichemical -- still there are a lot things I can relate to. Well, not the price fixing or the multi-million dollar kickbacks. The movie has a knowing ironic tone that is almost campy. The movie is not really about price fixing it is really about the sitcom situations that Mark is in, and his outrageous behavior. The laughs are mostly about how self-serving and glory-seeking Mark Whitacre is. On the other hand, Mark is not very likable, and none of the other characters are either. I did not care for Scott Bakula. This movie could have used a co-star and another subplot.
I thought the film was well-directed despite the marginal acting. The tone of the movie is its most appealing part.
Cast: Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula
Crew: directed by Steven Soderbergh based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald
Rating: 2.0 flasks (originally 2.5, but now 2.0 because Mark Whitacre is so annoying.)
More: Wikipedia says that Whitacre informed because his wife made him do so.
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