THE WHISTLEBLOWER

You have to applaud the courage of Rachel Weisz. She sinks her talented teeth into and becomes whom ever she is portraying, whether “Tess” in “The Constant Gardner” ( Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor); “Evie” in “The Mummy”, “Hypatia” in “Agora” and now Kathryn Bolkovac in “The Whistleblower”.

Kathryn Bolkovac’s story is one of overwhelming fortitude and fearlessness in the face  of ghastly, even deadly consequences. She is a police officer assigned by the United Nations as a peacekeeper in Bosnia in the 1990’s; here she is confronted with the heinous travesty of international trafficking in young women for sex. Many of the offenders, part of her team; nonchalant, cavalier not threatened by impunity.

Kathryn champions the plight of these young women, using what sources she garnishes among her peers. Her tenaciousness and feistiness attract Madeleine Rees, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (Vanessa Redgrave gives a worthwhile and solid performance). As she delves into these atrocities, she unearths horrific, repugnant examples of men who have sunk into the morass of irredeemable moral turpitude. There is a rape scene where even the more hardened viewer squirms with repugnance and disbelief.

“The Whistleblower” is reminiscent of “Erin Brockovich” (2000), and “Silkwood”(1983) , women of indomitable wills who refuse, under monumental threats, to relinquish their crusades . Mark Twain defined courage as “resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear”. Kathryn Bolkovac, corners awareness under the masterful tutelage of Rachel Weisz, shuns her fears, evolves into a goddess of resistance,  an oracle, a prophet of iniquity.

THREE & 1/2 STARS!!!

For Now……..Peneflix