Matt Damon stars.

Director Steven Soderbergh can swing from the escapism of the "Ocean's 11" caper franchise to the life of communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

For his latest outing, he's tackled a jaw-dropping true story of corporate crime.

"The Informant!" plays like a comedy though there's nothing inherently funny about the greedy skullduggery at its center.

It takes place before the recent spectacle of government bailout money lining the pockets of those at the forefront of the current economic mess. But it bears the same hallmarks of arrogance and a sense of entitlement. Before the final credits roll, we're served a toxic soup of embezzlement, price-fixing, bribery, kick-backs, industrial sabotage and forgery.

Matt Damon plumped up 30 pounds to play Mark Whitacre, an executive at the big agribusiness company, Archer Daniels Midland.

Mark is a go-getter involved in price-fixing and market manipulation schemes. Finally, he goes to the FBI and is enlisted to bust the other perpetrators.

He comes across as a doofus playing at James Bond as he blithely wears a wire and smuggles tape recorders into high-level meetings. By now, Mark is living two lives: He's acting the part of a company man and an FBI collaborator.

At this point, we learn that Mark's grasp of reality isn't exactly firm. He sees no conflict in his dual roles. In fact, he figures he'll become CEO after his bosses go to jail. Much to the astonishment of his FBI handlers and the case's prosecutors, Mark is revealed to be more than the sincere whistleblower they think he is. Is he a hero or a sociopath or both?

Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns bring a spritely pace to the story, artfully doling out one outrageous revelation after another. Soderbergh also infuses the proceedings with a whimsical style.

The performances are all spot on. Melanie Lynskey plays Mark's troubled but supportive wife who may or may not know the extent of Mark's business and legal involvements. Scott Bakula and Joel McHale play his FBI handlers snared in a web of exasperation and disbelief. Bakula is particularly effective as the somber G-man who sees years of work unravel at the hands of a likable loose cannon.

But Damon carries most of the weight as he cheerfully frustrates lawyers, law enforcers and colleagues. His voice-over observations are amusingly off-kilter and the character he builds is fascinating from beginning to end.