The Informant! movie review & film summary (2009)
Whitacre knew that ADM and its competitors were engaged in global price-fixing that cost consumers billions. This largess was passed on invisibly to executives and stockholders, yet created a surprisingly small footprint in central Illinois, Yes, executives lived in very nice houses (Soderbergh shot in Whitacre's mansion in tiny Moweaqua, Ill.) but they were low-profile, compared to Manhattan high-rollers, and ate at the local restaurants just like ordinary folks.
The story unfolds as Whitacre is put under pressure to discover the source of contamination, possibly industrial sabotage, in one of ADM's operations. He engages in unofficial conversations with key competitors overseas and thinks he may be onto something. Then FBI agents from Decatur swoop down as part of an espionage probe. He clears himself, but as the agents (Scott Bakula and Joel McHale) are leaving, he calls after them.
He has something he wants to say. They're blindsided. He tells them ADM has been fixing prices for years, that he has been involved, that he has details and wants to clear his conscience. His wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey) helped him arrive at the decision to do the right thing.
The FBI recruits him as an informant, taps phones, teaches him to wear a wire and even videotapes price-fixing meetings, building an airtight case. Eventually three officials, including vice chairman Michael Andreas, son of the founder, were found guilty; the company was fined $100 million and paid another $400 million in a class action lawsuit.
If only it were that simple, “The Informant!” might have been a corporate thriller like Michael Mann's “The Insider” (1999), with Russell Crowe as a whistle blower in the tobacco industry. But during the investigation, Whitacre reveals himself as a man of bewildering contradictions. Who would think to attempt an embezzlement and phony check-cashing scheme while literally working under the noses and at the side of FBI accountants? What was the full story of the industrial espionage he halted? Did he really expect that by exposing those above him, it would clear the way for him, one of the key price-fixers, to take command of the company?
