7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Based on a true story, a female cop from Nebraska serves as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outs the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal.
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, David Strathairn, Nikolaj Lie KaasBiography | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Considering its title, you'd be forgiven for thinking The Whistleblower is simply another little man versus The Man tale of white collar corporate corruption, like The Insider or Silkwood or the fantastic documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Actually, the based-on-a-true-story film--starring Rachel Weisz as a contracted peacekeeper in Bosnia--is darker and more visceral than that, a consciousness-raising trek through the horrific underground world of sex trafficking. Like Weisz' earlier film, The Constant Gardner, which took on unethical pharmaceutical experimentation in Africa, The Whistleblower is about organizations exploiting the very same poor and defenseless people that they claim to serve and protect. As a Big Issue movie, it's engineered to provoke moral outrage--and it certainly does--but it also manages to avoid the sour preachiness of similar films by focusing intimately on a singular oppressed sex slave and her female would-be rescuer, both of whom are fighting against a misogynistic, male-dominated system with deep pockets and diplomatic immunity. Although it's far from a perfect film, it is a powerful one, raging against a hypocritical machine and demonstrating that money too often takes precedence over human rights.
Shooting on grainy 35mm, director of photography Kieren McGuigan has given The Whistleblower a moody, intentionally gritty look, and 20th Century Fox has replicated it wonderfully on Blu-ray, with a strong 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. The chunky grain structure hasn't been touched by digital noise reduction and there are no signs of edge enhancement or overt compression problems, making this a faithful port to home video. There are, however, a few traits inherent to the cinematography that are worth pointing out. The most notable one is that the contrast curve is heavily weighted in the shadows, which often obscure detail in darker scenes. I have no doubt this is intentional, but black levels probably could've been a bit less intense. It also seems that there are several scenes where the focus isn't precise, creating a slightly soft image. Otherwise, the picture is more than adequately sharp--with satisfying detail in facial, hair, and clothing textures--and densely colored, utilizing a palette of grungy, dirty-looking hues. This isn't an "eye candy" film by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes across effectively enough on Blu-ray.
The Whistleblower sounds off on Blu-ray with 20th Century Fox's usual lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound presentation. Like the picture quality, there's nothing here that will outright amaze you--no real ear candy--but the mix is clear and dynamically weighty, and features some decently immersive sound design. Although the experience is anchored up front, the rear channels are used fairly often for environmental ambience--like rain or wind or whore-house clamor--and occasional effects, from zipping UN vans and exploding land mines to helicopters chop-chopping through between speakers. The subwoofer kicks in impressionistically when necessary to add some dramatic oomph, and the track is filled out with a quietly involving score. Dialogue is always clean and easily understood, and for those who might need or want them, optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are available.
The lone bonus feature on the disc is Kathy Bolkovac: The Real Whistleblower (1080p, 5:31), a short featurette that includes interviews with Bolkovac, Weisz, and the film's writers and director.
The Whistleblower will make you angry--at institutional hypocrisy, at bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo, at the kind of men who would buy and sell women as sex slaves--and that's precisely the point. This film wants you to know that sex trafficking exists, and that something needs to be done about it. It wants you to be morally outraged, and you will be. Of course, Big Issue movies like this always run into the danger of prioritizing the social message over the storytelling, and yes, The Whistleblower could use some narrative tightening, but it avoids most of the usual didactic pitfalls and makes its case while being entertaining--if the word can be applied to a film about sex trafficking--and emotionally powerful. The film looks and sounds excellent on Blu-ray, but I might put this one in the "rental" rather than "purchase" category, as I'm not so sure it's something you'd want to watch repeatedly.
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