Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon: 'The Informant!'

The Informant! is "a return to form" for director Steven Soderbergh, said David Denby in The New Yorker, and the film's star, Matt Damon, "is on fire." Based on a book of the same name about "corporate whistle-blower" Mark Whitacre (played by Damon), The Informant! (watch the trailer) is "a vertiginous experience that grows increasingly hilarious" as Whitacre takes foolish risks to expose price-fixing at Archer Daniels Midland.

"If you're on Soderbergh's wavelength," said Marshall Fine in Hollywood & Fine, "you'll laugh yourself silly at the chutzpah of The Informant!" But the entire movie is "built around a Damon performance that captures the manic high of a man who needs a lithium drip," and it will "either amuse or infuriate you, depending on your tolerance for the ramblings of someone suffering from attention-deficit disorder spiked with a case of bipolarity."

The Informant! could have been a compelling exploration of "corporate misbehavior," said David Edelstein in New York magazine. Instead, Soderburgh made it merely a Halloween freak show featuring a "fatted Matt Damon" with a pompadour wig and thick glasses. Exploring the duality of Whitacre's psyche is simply not that interesting—"he's just a nut."

Also opening this weekend: Love Happens, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Jennifer's Body