Butler's Cinema Scene

Rachel Weisz

“THE WHISTLEBLOWER” My rating: B (Opening Aug. 26 at the Rio)

112 minutes | MPAA rating: R

For a first feature, Larysa Kondracki’s “The Whistleblower” is a more than competent thriller carrying a considerable emotional punch.

Based on the real experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who in the late ‘90s signed up for a United Nations peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslavia, this suspenser carries a big dose of moral outrage.

Kathryn (Rachel Weisz) is a member of the Lincoln PD who already has lost primary custody of her kids and now faces losing them entirely, since her ex is relocating to another state.

Strapped with debt and unable to find a law enforcement job near the children, she answers an ad for a high-paying job as a U.N. Peacekeeper. Her idea is to return after a year with enough money to start over.

Soon she finds herself in Bosnia, employed by a big American firm that is contracting services to the U.N.

Kathryn’s success putting together a case against an abusive husband draws the attention of a U.N. bigwig (Vanessa Redgrave), who puts the newcomer in charge of a unit devoted to crimes against women.

This is where Kathryn meets Raya (Roxana Conducrache) and Luba (Paula Schramm), Ukranian teens who have been sold into sexual slavery. Her efforts to free the girls are stymied by labyrinthine U.N. regulations (Monica Bellucci plays the main stickler for rules), the terrorized girls’ refusal to testify against their captors and the general corruption of the local cops, who aid and abet the sex traffickers.

Slowly it dawns on Kathryn that the problem goes much deeper, that the international peacekeepers are not only clients of these women, but have a financial stake in their exploitation.

The very men who are supposed to be protecting them are shamlessly using them.

Kathryn’s investigation is stymied at every turn, not only by the savage culture of the sex traffickers but by her own bosses, who do all they can to see her crusade fail.

Some way, somehow, she must gather enough evidence to blow the whistle on this outrage.

“The Whistleblower” has an abundance of terror and brutality; happily, Weisz’s performance gives the film a human and humane center. This isn’t showy acting, but Weisz knows how to anchor a film and let her audience’s fury slowly percolate.

The film’s technical aspects are good and the rest of the cast — David Strathairn, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Hewlett, Liam Cunningham — provide solid support.

| Robert W. Butler