It's hard to not compare "The Informant!" to 2008's "Burn After Reading". Both come from respected directors, featured stories about corruption and/or betrayal, had wonderful casts, and had very, VERY funny trailers. The difference? "The Informant!", while marketed as a comedy, seems to be aiming for strange new territory. While not a zany corporate crime comedy, Soderbergh's film also doesn't go for the gritty, insightful, hard-hitting image that made Michael Mann's "The Insider" so dramatically compelling. You've heard of movies where all of the best lines are in the trailer? This is one of them. Instead, Soderbergh and crew land somewhere in between with a soft 'thud'. No, it's not an abject failure, not at all, but it's a few leaps from being an unqualified success. Given the strange in-between tone, Matt Damon does give a good performance, but it's difficult to rave about it considering the material; do Soderbergh and crew want us fully invested in this man, or is he supposed to be a joke? Though the film becomes more serious as it progresses, it's never decisive about this question...and if it is, it's simply not emphatic enough. Soderbergh's execution seems almost limp as opposed to A) sharp and witty or B) compelling. Because of this, the film, though not poorly paced, still feels 'off' in its timing. Though set in the early and mid-nineties, the muted oranges that pervade the frames oddly suggest something out of the seventies. By shooting this film in the same vein as the "Ocean's 11" trilogy, but by trying to be somewhat more serious (yet still with a wink...?), it seems that it isn't just the marketing team that's confused about this film. There's also the matter of the music, which is light and bouncy, suggesting that, AHA! we got you!, the film is back in comedy again. Soderbergh himself can't seem to make up his mind, and as a result, the attempts at comedy almost never stick, while the drama feels shortchanged, leaving the talented cast of Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Melanie Lynskey, in the dust.
Grade: B-/C+
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