The Whistleblower
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: August 5, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
10
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ObserverRex ReedAug 2, 2011
A grisly, authentic, meticulously researched, pulse-quickening political chiller about a hot-button topic that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 10, 2011
For 20 years the news has reported from time to time of crimes alleged by employees of paid defense contractors. These cases rarely seem to result in change, and the stories continue. We can only guess what may be going unreported. The Whistleblower offers chilling evidence of why that seems to be so. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderBen SachsAug 11, 2011
Kondracki relies on sharp, quotidian detail to show how such atrocities become business as usual; she also makes a point of humanizing the victims of trafficking to emphasize the obscenity of the crimes. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsAug 4, 2011
Weisz is a dazzling woman, but her beauty is barely noticeable in this role; her character's integrity and her mounting anger grab all the attention. In one scene Kathy finally confronts what she's up against and starts to cry. They are tears of rage, and the most powerful I've seen this year. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangJul 31, 2011
This accomplished debut feature avoids most of the usual pitfalls, channeling its outrage into a tense, focused piece of storytelling with a powerful sense of empathy. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 21, 2011
Ends up being a reasonably gripping story of political intrigue, international corruption and one woman's determined fight for justice. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 12, 2011
A first-rate one-woman-against-the-system drama. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeLoren KingSep 1, 2011
Larysa Kondracki's impressive debut achieves its aim to shine light on an international human rights issue as well as signaling a new director to watch. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterAug 12, 2011
There is also a parallel subplot following the fate of two Ukrainian girls caught in the sex-slave ring Kathy targets. This storyline isn't dramatically satisfying, but it does provide context and ensures the victims in this story are not portrayed simply as faces in the dark. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 11, 2011
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. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 5, 2011
The Whistleblower is frustratingly uneven, but at least it affords us the rare opportunity these days to meet up with a movie hero who isn't wearing jammies and a cape. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 3, 2011
Rarely has a movie captured the obscene violence of sex trafficking with such unvarnished grubbiness. In the end, though, The Whistleblower is a corporate thriller. Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloAug 5, 2011
Credit Kondracki and Kirwan with having endowed their picture with considerable, if blunt, force. Their filmmaking suits the real-life atrocities they're exposing. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob NelsonAug 2, 2011
Geographic diffusion aside, Kondracki's fact-based thriller remains somewhat focused on its grim subject, though its principled bid to allure and enlighten the VOD-surfing masses results in a surplus of Hollywood-style eye candy and narrative formula. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 26, 2011
It's hard to imagine a better movie about corporate-sanctioned sex trafficking than The Whistleblower. But whether you're ready to confront this true story is a trickier question. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 18, 2011
The story, inspired by Bolkovac's experiences in Bosnia and her subsequent book account, is dynamite. Alas, Kondracki's direction fizzles. While she elicits a tense and eloquent performance from Weisz, the first-time filmmaker fails to maintain a consistent tone. Her film samples multiple genres. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 4, 2011
The film swings from melodrama to sermonizing, both blunting the human drama that needs to come to the fore. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 4, 2011
For all its high-mindedness, The Whistleblower has a choppy, fumbling screenplay (by Ms. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan) that lurches between shrill editorializing and vagueness while sorting through more characters than it can comfortably handle or even readily identify. Read full review
60
Time OutSam AdamsAug 2, 2011
Our heroine plods doggedly through her frequently stymied investigation, and The Whistleblower follows suit, trudging forward one encumbered step at a time. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineBarbara GoslawskiJul 31, 2011
Severe and unflinching, The Whistleblower relies on journalistic realism to pack its punch. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 18, 2011
There's a conflict between the film's need for some sort of closure and the messiness of the reality it depicts that leaves The Whistleblower even more unsatisfying than it was meant to be. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 1, 2011
The film is just a procession of increasingly grim and ugly scenarios and discoveries, capped off by a wildly frustrating ending. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRichard NilsenAug 25, 2011
You come away from watching the film with a moral bellyache. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 4, 2011
Though more brutish than elegant, The Whistleblower does have a certain charged, unvarnished power in its examination of how people can harm those they are enlisted to protect. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreAug 3, 2011
The Whistleblower's loose camerawork and cool tones sometimes recall Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic," but without his control or unwillingness to strip away his characters' humanity. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineBill WeberJul 31, 2011
It reaches a peak of dramatic anguish in star Rachel Weisz's single moment of naked fury, rather than through the tenacity and compassion that define her crusading title character. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 5, 2011
Director Larysa Kondracki's fictionalized account of a true story is underserved by a melodramatic script; the result is like a film of a "60 Minutes" segment. Still, Weisz is strong and smart. And David Strathairn shows up in is-he-good-or-evil? mode. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 12, 2019
The action is fun. And the unintentional laughs from the plot lapses, check-writing and black-face — Did I mention how these two try to “pass” in Africa? — are almost worth devoting well-over two hours to The Whistleblower. Almost. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 4, 2011
Ms. Weisz is always a strong presence, but her talents are wasted here on a naive heroine - the fictional Kathy is exceedingly slow to grasp the extent of the corruption - and a narrative style that turns the horror of the prostitutes' plight into harrowing melodrama. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 11, 2011
A classic example of a film that doesn't trust the strength of its source material - or the intelligence of its audience. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithAug 5, 2011
A pointless drama that trafficks in cliché. Read full review
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