*** STAR RATING (out of 4) | Thriller. R. 1 hour 52 minutes. At the Chez Artiste.
In the opening minutes of “The Whistleblower,” we meet a dedicated police officer (Rachel Weisz) whose huge problem is that she lives far from her daughter and can’t seem to get a transfer. But then, the movie pivots, and this Nebraska cop sublimates her maternal longings into an investigation of sex trafficking rings in Bosnia.
This all feels pulled in two directions, forced into a pattern and just not quite right, and so “The Whistleblower” — the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, who in 1999 joined a private security company doing “peacekeeping” in Bosnia — is clumsy and ineffective in its first half hour.
But gradually, as her investigation deepens, and we see the true hideousness of what she is uncovering, the movie achieves urgency and clarity of purpose.
The feature film debut of director Larysa Kondraki, it’s designed to make you think and to make you outraged, and it will do both.
Seemingly within days of arriving in Bosnia, Bolkovac discovers women who have been raped and abused. But none of her colleagues or superiors is interested in prosecuting or even investigating. She starts pulling on the line and soon finds that the fish she is pursuing is getting bigger and bigger … and scarier and scarier. It might devour her.
Vanessa Redgrave mostly listens as Bolkovac’s bureaucratic advocate, but no one listens better. And Weisz gives a psychologically astute performance.
If it were merely a drama, “The Whistleblower” would be so-so. But the good thing about true stories is that knowing they’re true makes them better.
