The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)

Based on the story of corporate whistleblower and embezzler Mark Whitacre, The Informant! is in essence a continuation of Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven streak, right down to the casting of Matt Damon as the titular double-dealer. It opts to turn Whitacre's delusional tale, which involves him playing the FBI and his employers off against each other to make himself appear a crusader against big-business corruption while pocketing millions, into a comedy crime caper, complete with a whimsical retro Marvin Hamlisch soundtrack, intentionally redolent of what he did for The Sting. Matt Damon does do a good weasel, a kind of an amiable nerd version of his sociopathic Tom Ripley, but it's not half as endearing or funny as it thinks it is while attempting to wring satire out of its protagonist's rather sad compulsive lying.

5/10