***1/2 – On the one hand, I have a certain appreciation for movies that take serious subject and turn it into comedy fodder. On the other hand, I don’t like it when movies try too hard to make things funny by adding goofball zaniness. Stephen Soderbergh’s 2009 “The Informant!” – which deals with the extreme financial malfeasance of agricultural product conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland and its employees in the mid 1990s – does a mostly good job playing serious subject matter for humor, but goes overboard at times. I am mostly referring to the score and soundtrack to this film, which was a combination of punchy horns, 60s spy movie themes and 70s variety show pomp. I feel that that sort of self-identifying wackiness is completely unnecessary, and a movie that is genuinely funny should be able to stand on its own. Add to that the fact that the sound was so poorly mixed (music was way too loud and dialogue way too soft), and it takes what could have easily been a great film and causes it to fall down into the region of just a good film. Matt Damon did a really nice job playing the pathologically lying lead character with enough humor and charisma to keep him somewhat likeable despite the fact that he is clearly very unstable.
The Informant
***1/2 – On the one hand, I have a certain appreciation for movies that take serious subject and turn it into comedy fodder. On the other hand, I don’t like it when movies try too hard to make things funny by adding goofball zaniness. Stephen Soderbergh’s 2009 “The Informant!” – which deals with the extreme financial malfeasance of agricultural product conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland and its employees in the mid 1990s – does a mostly good job playing serious subject matter for humor, but goes overboard at times. I am mostly referring to the score and soundtrack to this film, which was a combination of punchy horns, 60s spy movie themes and 70s variety show pomp. I feel that that sort of self-identifying wackiness is completely unnecessary, and a movie that is genuinely funny should be able to stand on its own. Add to that the fact that the sound was so poorly mixed (music was way too loud and dialogue way too soft), and it takes what could have easily been a great film and causes it to fall down into the region of just a good film. Matt Damon did a really nice job playing the pathologically lying lead character with enough humor and charisma to keep him somewhat likeable despite the fact that he is clearly very unstable.
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