Synopsis:
Mark Whitacre (Damon) was a rising star at Decatur, Illinois’ Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990’s. Secretly gathering video and audio tapes over several years, he ended up exposing the company’s price fixing tactics. Based on a true story chronicled in the novel by Kurt Eichenwald.
Our Thoughts:
Matt Damon gains 40 lbs to take on his next role - that of the highest level executive whistle-blower in US history - in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film The Informant.
That sounds interesting. With vague overtones relating to the widely popular film The Insider that was released a few years back (and that I still haven’t seen), that premise sounds like it should draw a decent crowd - and Steven Soderbergh, still riding high from the success of the Ocean’s trilogy, won’t hurt either.
But wait…things aren’t as decent as they seem at first glance. According to various sources (wikipedia.org among them), the film is aiming to be a “dark comedy thriller.” Say what? This guy is risking his neck to expose the corruption in the company, and they are going to play it off with humor? Not sure if that’s going to work.
While it’s nice to see ol’ “Quantum Leap’s” Scott Bakula still has a career after the public’s apparent disappointment with his “Star Trek” spin-off “Enterprise,” I’m not so sure Damon gaining 40 lbs for the role is a good idea.
After all, a few actors have recently tried to gain or lose a whole mess of weight for roles, and most of them (Jared Leto’s Chapter 27, Christian Bale’s The Machinist) have turned out to be less than successful. True, Charlize Theron managed to make her weight gain for Monster (2003) garner some well-deserved attention, but she so far seems to be the old “exception that proves the rule.”
Of course, I’ve doubted Matt Damon before (prior to The Bourne Identity (2002)), and he’s proven me wrong, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Still, I’ll probably wait for the DVD - just in case.
