Overall Impression – A fun and inventive movie that really sucks you into Mark Whitacre’s confused, paranoid world.
THE FOUR QUESTIONS
Who’s your main character? – Mark Whitacre.
What’s he trying to accomplish? – Professional: help the FBI gather evidence against a supposed worldwide price fixing conspiracy organized by his company. Personal: keep his personal life intact. Private: deal with paranoia caused by his bipolar disorder.
Who’s trying to stop him? – Mostly obstacles brought on by his bipolar condition, at times being the FBI and his coworkers.
What happens if he fails? – Consumers the world over will remain victims of price fixing, and Whitacre and his family will lose everything.
THE FOUR ARCHETYPES
Orphan – When the FBI investigates a price fixing conspiracy rooted in Whitacre’s company, he can’t talk to anybody and feels like he’s being watched – he becomes an outsider in his own life. Additionally, Whitacre’s unique way of looking at the world sets him apart.
Wanderer – Naively believing that he’s going to become a hero and secure the top job at the company after the ‘bad elements’ have been rooted out, Whitacre becomes an FBI informant. Working with agent Shepard, they figure out the best way to gather workable evidence. Gradually, the FBI learns that Whitacre isn’t he saint he made himself out to be, and that his accounts are as much fantasy as truth.
Warrior – When Whitacre’s ever-changing accounts threaten the case, the FBI tries to sort truth from lies and keep Whitacre on track. However, Whitacre becomes aware that being an informant is ruining his life instead of improving it. As he contends with financial, professional, personal and media fall-out, Whitacre starts doubting himself and what he’s gotten himself into.
Martyr – When Whitacre finally starts telling the truth, he becomes what he was trying to avoid: the fall guy. Even after everything he’s done for the FBI, his lies and criminal activity (which he’d justified in his mind) burn him more than anyone he was trying to incriminate. Whitacre loses everything and goes to jail in the name of ‘justice’.
AND, IN THE END…
I’m still wrapping my head around THE INFORMANT!, which I think is its intended effect. Mark Whitacre is such an enigma that he had trouble discerning between reality and his own fiction, and the movie does such a great job of pulling you in that when Whitacre is revealed as untrustworthy, you start questioning the film’s events as much as the characters do.
THE INFORMANT! provides an interesting twist on the notion that the hero must give up what he wants before he can get what he needs. Often, the hero willingly becomes a martyr, or at the very least, accepts that there are no other means by which success can be achieved. By contrast, Whitacre can be seen as an unwilling martyr. He wanted nothing more than for the FBI to go away, leaving him with his perfectly planned life. Instead Whitacre had everything taken from him, which really amped up a feeling of poignancy that might not have existed had he been willing and compliant. It’s interesting to see how a movie’s message can vary by making the main character a willing or unwilling martyr.
– Dan Pilditch
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