The Informant! vs A Beautiful Mind

I’ve made a lot of noise about how Steven Soderbergh makes one movie for himself for every mainstream movie he directs. He makes Solaris, but also Ocean’s Thirteen. It’s not really Soderbergh who’s making those stretches, though; it’s me. I’m the one who compartmentalizes him. The so-called art films are still pretty fun and accessible, while the popcorn movies maintain great acting and fun stylistic touches in both look and script. Just because he’s got a variety of tastes and skills doesn’t mean he’s some kind of genius (or that he’s not). The Informant! straddles each of Soderbergh’s worlds, landing square in a genre I’m calling Hilarious Thriller, home of Fargo and The Player. One of the ways Soderberg keeps The Informant! humming is by casting actors known almost exclusively for comedy (Patton Oswalt, Tony Hale, Joel McHale, even the Smothers Brothers), and playing them straight. And for the goofball at the center of them all, he cast a pudgy, mustached, hilarious Matt Damon, who comes off like William H. Macy playing Erin Brockovich. Damon is getting a lot of attention for going all method and changing for this role, but the fact is he’s always good. I guess the fuss is over the fact that he gained some weight. If the newly added pounds (I’m sure they’re long gone by now) give him more freedom to bring the funny, or to reveal his inner character actor, then good. Put Matt Damon with Renee Zellwegger and Seth Rogan in the category of actors who maybe should keep an extra ten pounds.

Mark Whitacre (Damon) worked his way up through ADM in Decator, IL, first as a biochemist, and then on the business end. ADM makes corn-based products, which, Mark tells us several times throughout the movie, are in basically everything. When Mark notifies his boss that he’s been the victim of an extortion attempt by a Japanese executive for ten million dollars, his boss does the seemingly right thing by calling in the FBI, who interview Mark and put a tap on his business line at home. Mark is stressed out, but cooperative and somewhat energized by the proceedings. And then he does something weird. One night, after talking with the agent (Scott Bakula), he rushes after him and reveals more: his company is guilty of working with other corporations to fix prices. And so, the guy who volunteered one crime had now revealed another, and would soon be attending meetings wearing a wire just like in the Michael Crichton and John Grisham books he loved so much. Whitacre eventually reveals his own crimes as well, thinking his honesty will impress the Feds so much that he’ll wind up running the company after his bosses are taken down. He thinks everyone will understand and appreciate his actions, including those who’ll be fired and/or jailed for Whitacre’s whistle-blowing.

Throughout The Informant! (exclamation point theirs, although don’t let that fool you into thinking there’s a tap number), Mark Whitacre narrates the contents of his crowded brain. He’s constantly distracted by stats, trivia and extra details for everything, including other movies. Mark, as presented here, comes off three ways: Potentially brilliant, understanding his business more than any of his coworkers; completely full of shit, concocting a fresh crisis every time he was backed into a corner; and nuts. By the end of The Informant! You’ll begin to wonder if Mark Whitacre was maybe one of those Beautiful Mind types, not necessarily distracted by his own thoughts, but perhaps by the other people living in his brain.

Like The Informant! A Beautiful Mind is a movie built around a real person swept up in a conspiracy. And, like The Informant! it’s probably fudging the facts a little here and for the sake of entertainment. I can’t tell you how many people told me things about John Nash once the movie arrived. Funny, no one wanted to talk about him before that. Apparently, there are some not-beautiful aspects to Nash’s biography, some of which might lessen our sympathy for him. Okay. I’m still allowed to like the movie though, right? It’s not grand jury testimony, you guys. It’s a Ron Howard movie.

Russell Crowe stars as John Nash, a mathematics professor and capital-G Genius who is abrasive, off-putting, troubled, maybe working as a spy for the government, in love with Jennifer Connelly (he can get in line), and maybe, okay probably, wearing a bucket of crazy on each foot. Russell Crowe is good. Heard it here first. The rest of the cast is stellar as well, especially Connelly, Ed Harris and Paul Bettany. Ron Howard rarely dips too far into either of Soderbergh’s worlds. No one could ever accuse him of being too artistic, although he’s not putting out pure fluff, either. A Beautiful Mind makes some compromises in its attempt to present the truth without getting anyone in trouble. It’s the Marc Whitacre of movies.

The Informant!: A-

A Beautiful Mind: A-