Director Steve Soderbergh is great at rat-packish/stylish guys-guy films – “Oceans 11, 12, and 13” – yet he was also a whistle-blower in directing Oscar winning “Erin Brokovich.” In this – based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald – comes Mark Whitcare (Matt Damon) donning a thick moustache, big glasses and bad suits. His mind is a constant tick of inner thoughts about advertising campaigns that carefully narrate over the movie’s scenes as he drives to and from his office. He dreams of food courts, outlet stores, and wonders why products have certain names that work while others don’t. Whitcare is the soul of Corporate America for Archer Daniels Midland – but also the informant to the FBI mixed in a conspiracy that feels a bit like “Catch Me If You Can.” Soderbergh has tried these odd exercise movies before but these smaller passion projects never quite gel. And all the movies named herein are far more entertaining at getting to the point of corporate greed than “The Informant.” We watch Whitcare’s rise/demise and learn a lesson in knowing when he should keep his mouth shut. Damon’s acting is tense and naive and Oscar worthy. But then there’s the films’ odd time warp… Though the screen clearly says 1992 as the story opens, the musics’ sleek groovy sounds of Marvin Hamlisch feels very sixties. A touch of “Mad Men?” Maybe, but it just doesn’t work. Two tiaras
