Rachel Weisz is one tough cookie. She played an Egyptologist who saved Brendan Fraser’s life in “The Mummy,” a ball-breaking artist in “The Shape of Things,” and a courageous sniper in “Enemy at the Gates” — and always looked the classic beauty while doing so. Her performance in her latest movie is no exception. As Kathryn Bolkovac, she takes on the Sarajevo police, then her fellow peacekeepers, and finally the United Nations itself. All while reminding us she’s one of our most elegant actresses. “The Whistleblower,” the opening credits tell us, was “inspired by actual events.” Once you get to the end, that line is more than chilling. Kathryn is a Nebraska cop desperate to find a way to move to the city where her ex-husband has taken their children. Someone suggests one way to do it — perform a six-month tour of duty as a peacekeeper in postwar Bosnia as a government contractor.
Her grand dreams of aiding a fledgling nation are crushed the first day, when she learns some of her colleagues have no training whatsoever. This isn’t the group of elite cops she thought she was joining. But that’s just the first revelation. She soon discovers that the capita is an attractive place for sex trafficking. And those men away from home — the customers — are also peacekeepers, taking advantage of their position to keep the dark and dirty nightclubs running.
| ONSCREEN |
| ‘The Whistleblower’ |
| » Rating: 3 out of 5 stars |
| » Stars: Rachel Weisz |
| » Director: Larysa Kondracki |
| » Rated: R for disturbing violent content including a brutal sexual assault, graphic nudity, and language |
| » Running time: 112 minutes |
Weisz carries the film. She has to, as none of the male characters are particularly well-drawn. Not even Jan, the Dutchman with whom the newly single Karen enters into an affair. The girls, drawn out of their homes with the promise of good jobs abroad only to find themselves in a living hell, have more personality — which makes watching their torture that much more difficult.
You’d think a movie with Rachel Weisz and Monica Bellucci would be an easy sell, yet “The Whistleblower” isn’t getting that kind of press. We see the luscious Bellucci too little, as a U.N. functionary, and she’s far too covered up. Vanessa Redgrave and David Strathairn do fine work as Kathryn’s U.N. mentors, who might not be as committed as she is to exposing the truth.
Kathryn Bolkovac wanted to show the world what was going on under the very eyes — and even with the cooperation — of the people it sent to protect the vulnerable. She did. And thanks to the intelligent work of Rachel Weisz, many more people will learn about those who, as Kathryn says in the film of not just the perpetrators but those who covered their crimes, have lost their humanity.
