STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The true story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) who worked for a giant firm that produced lysine chemicals in products to be consumed by humans. Whitacre maintained a degree of honesty and integrity to his work, but when he uncovered evidence of price fixing with rival foreign companies, he turned undercover informant for the FBI...but, as events rolled on, it would appear he may have known a bit more about what was going on himself than he was letting on.

Playing like a lighter version of 1999's The Insider, Steven Soderbergh's dramatization of corporate corruption in the early 90s is amusingly on edge through-out, with Damon's constant muted voice-overs gently guiding us along this tale of principles and ethics clashing with corporate greed and deception. Damon is affable enough in the lead role (certainly hard to think of any actor who could have done it better) and the story is pretty relevant and dynamic. There's nothing about it that really makes it unforgettable or brilliant, but it's certainly worth a bit of your time. ***

It's 1992 Decatur, Il. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) works for ADM developing lysine from corn. He tells his boss that he got a call from a Japanese competitor about a saboteur in their plant. The informer wants a $10M payoff. He is shocked when his boss calls the FBI. His wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey) keeps telling him to just tell the truth. FBI Agent Shepard (Scott Bakula) investigates. Mark tells Shepard that this is actually a case of price fixing by ADM with their Japanese and Korean competitors.

Steven Soderbergh has impregnated this with happy music and light comical narration throughout. Matt Damon is wildly manic as the sketchy upper management type. It's lightly comical take on a serious and probably boring corporate story. It's all in the performance of Matt Damon and trying to figure out how much of what he says is actually true.

I mostly enjoyed this film. If there is such a man out there who could pull this off, that is amazing in itself. The essence of the bipolarity that loses its credibility is that if you live an impossible life in the real world, you are probably going to slip up at some point. The overzealousness of the Damon character is so beyond the pale that one would think he would have blown it along the way. Then again, when you put greed and fear into the mix, he becomes the person you want to trust. Like his character in Mr. Ripley, he lives a fantasy world of his own creation. While this one isn't as malignant, he does leave a different kind of body in his wake. Damon's performance is remarkable and leads us along nicely. We actually begin to feel sorry for the FBI. It's a tour de force for Damon who seems to have found a nice niche as a quirky, dishonest man.