In my opinion The Whistleblower is a must-see, and will probably wind up being among the year’s best films. I would not personally call it a great film, but it is very, very good, especially by the meager standards of modern cinema. My wife and I saw The Whistleblower this week at a 7 pm show at Sunshine on the lower east side. There were about eight people in the audience. I find this very sad, because several decades ago this kind of movie would have gotten much more press and better distribution. I hope this review encourages more people to go out of their way to see this exciting and important film .

The Whistleblower deals with the topic of human sex trafficking, and given the extreme heinousness of this trade, coupled with its almost complete lack of exposure in the U.S. as a real problem, one can applaud the effort of the filmmakers to bring this abomination to the attention of the general public. But the film also deals with a deeper, more subtle issue: the severe conflict of interests that arise when private contractors (i.e. unaccountable multinational corporations) are sent by the United States into desperate, destroyed countries with ambiguously defined missions involving the welfare of average people.

It is on this second topic where The Whistleblower is at its best. The various scenes where Rachel Weisz meets head-on the institution-wide insanity that has the UN monitors participating in the sex trade (not just consuming it, but running it) are all really strong and edgy, and capture in a creepy way the amoral trance that the UN superstructure fell into. There are three scenes in particular that are simply riveting and unforgettable, while remaining completely low-key and realistic (not a very common combination these days.) I won’t describe them here, so as to not spoil the marvelous spontaneity of these scenes. But seeing these scenes gives me hope for the future of film making – at least someone still remembers how to do it well!

But the film also does a good (and disturbing) job of showing the completely hopeless and inhuman lives these poor unfortunate woman fall into by virtue of societal circumstances that bring out the worst in people with any scrap of power or influence, and make all the others extremely vulnerable to their depravity and cruelty. These scenes are not easy to watch – this movie is not The Help, folks, we are well beyond Hollywood’s “reality limits” here. But at least you see something real, and are forced to acknowledge that this shit is going on in the same world we live in, while we spend our time recording outraged rants on YouTube about how horrible Rebecca Black is.

The film does a good job covering a lot of boring but important ground in the beginning, while simultaneously getting the main plot line rolling quickly. And what’s more, they somehow managed to do this without resorting to narration. Once the main story is in motion, the scene sequence is well-paced and surprising, and one is completely gripped by the story.

I have to hand it to Rachel Weisz. I really admire her. The woman is starting to develop a small monopoly on strong, empowered female roles in serious movies. I’m not sure I think she is the greatest actress in the world, but she has grown on me, to the point where I now get excited about the next “Rachel Weisz film” At least there is one actress out there finding good, powerful, dignified roles to play! Brava, Rachel!

The eternally sexy Monica Bellucci dials it in another direction here, and gives a great little performance as a completely terrifying, soulless bureaucrat, robotically carrying out her very human-intensive job without the least bit of sensitivity or thought. The role brings a nice flavor to the film – it reminds me of the Elizabeth Ashley role in Coma. I thought all the other supporting and incidental casting was solid.

Go see this film! It’s totally worth it!