The Whistleblower Reviews

A dark, uncompromising look into the disturbing world of human trafficking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

Weisz's best role, and best performance, since "The Constant Gardener.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The thriller stuff is very soft, and the docudrama stuff is too focused on "Oscar moments" (i.e. huge expressions of outrage and torment).

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Yes, The Whistleblower has its heart in the right place. However, that heart is bleeding a little too much.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

The Whistleblower goes off the rails a little -- I guess in an attempt to create more drama out of an already dramatic situation. As the plot devices pile up towards the end, it's a bit frustrating because there's a good movie in there somewhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

This is bleak terrain, but Weisz's performance helps us get through it. And as real-story films go, The Whistleblower is as accurate as can be.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

Weisz is made for this kind of role; from "Constant Gardener" to "Enemy at the Gates," few actors can do absolute, unshakable conviction so well on screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A reasonably taut story of political intrigue, international corruption and one woman's determined fight for justice

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The closing minutes of the film suggest the most challenging parts of the story still remains untold.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Don't let the impressive cast list, which includes Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci and David Strathairn, fool you: This is the Rachel Weisz show.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A first-rate one-woman-against-the-system drama, a film benefiting from grim recreations of an ugly reality and a stellar cast determined to expose it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

It's a good film with a strong central performance. The problem is that the film isn't as strong as the performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

Structured and shot like a quality premium-cable channel police drama, this fact-based story might have had more impact as a documentary.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

[Weisz's] restraint offers a cold, evaluative gaze that makes what transpires all the more telling, and in the absence of direction that can make something more out of these elements than just condemnation, that becomes a strength.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Instead of capitalising on a really fine performance from Rachel Weisz in the leading role, Kondracki makes a real mess of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

This is a truly depressing film, without any sense of release. You may even be tempted to give up on the human race while watching men casually trade and rape girls for a few measly dollars.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

While the facts of the case demand this film can do no more than administer one big booster shot of buzz-kill, it is Bolkovac's ferocious will to right so many wrongs (expertly channelled by Weisz) that keeps you glued to the screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

While it's overstuffed with characters - and not entirely satisfying as an entertainment, the film does manage to remind us of the human capacity for rationalizing atrocity. And the human capacity for doing the right thing nevertheless.

Full Review | Original Score: 83/100

If the film occasionally falls into melodramatics, it's hard to see how a story like this could have been told otherwise.

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It is no comfort to reflect that The Whistleblower would be a first-rate thriller even if all of it were fiction.

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