The Informant
(Steven Soderbergh): Matt Damon, Lucas McHugh Carroll, Eddie Jemison.
Running time: 108 minutes (15A)
Rating: 3/5

Steven Soderbergh's The Informant is a jaunty lark. It's loosely based on a true story: that of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a senior executive at a top US firm who turns whistleblower for the FBI. The agency, bungling and clueless, thinks it's on to something great. But the case has a habit of evolving dramatically, and not in the way the agency wants it to. On the surface, this is an espionage film about lysine price-fixing in the early 1990s: read corporate culture gets a going-over. But underneath, Soderbergh goes to work, dismantling and subverting the genre to the point of gentle farce. He leads you with telling music, but mocks events on screen. Is Mann's The Insider the target? Damon is a joy: just when you think you've got a handle on him, he's wriggled out of your grasp. It's clever and fun.