The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh is determined to do two things with this movie, an adaptation of Kurt Eichenwald's true-crime story of corporate criminality. First, he wants every natural light source to flare in the camera lens. In that respect, he succeeds; of all of Soderbergh's previous films, The Informant! most resembles his underrated meta-comedy Full Frontal. The effect is only mildly distracting, and serves to emphasize the boardroom and courtroom banality of the film's environment. Soderbergh's other goal, even more audacious, is to build a film around a character who appears in nearly every scene, directly addresses the audience in a voice over narration, but whose motivations and essence remain entirely opaque. Matt Damon's flighty agribusiness executive lies to his bosses, lies to the FBI, lies to his family, and, yes, lies to the audience, and the contours of his interior life are never exposed. It's fascinating to listen to his logical curlicues and flights of fantasy that dominate his inner monologue, especially as they contrast to the low wattage intrigue of price fixing and bugged hotel rooms. However, it doesn't really illuminate anything about the nature of corporate ethics. Instead, it's part of Soderbergh's existentialist effort to explore the futility of human communication.