Whiteout (2009)

Rated: R (violence, grisly images, language and some nudity)

Availability: In Theaters

Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes

With all the shocks and twists and turns that movies and books have assailed our eyes and brains with over the years, a thriller with a surprise at the climax is becoming more and more rare. Unfortunately, Whiteout is not one of these films either. Whiteout, based on a 4 issue comic book series originally published in 1998 by Greg Rucka, is the story of U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale, Underworld, Click) who has been assigned to security detail at a research facility in Antarctica. The base is about to lose all traffic in and out, because the 6 month long winter is about to start. We hear all about the weather and the darkness that makes it impossible to get planes in to the base. If you’re there after the last plane leaves, you are stuck and are “wintering.”

Just a few days before this deadline, a body is found out in the middle of nowhere. (Or should I say, even more in the middle of nowhere?) Carrie decides to take on the investigation, even though it probably means that she will not be returning home as planned but instead wintering there again. With the help of the friendly, fatherly doctor, John Fury (Tom Skerritt, Picket Fences, A River Runs Through It), pilot Delfy (Columbus Short, Stomp the Yard, Save the Last Dance 2) scientist Russell Haden (Alex O’Loughlin, Moonlight) and newly arrived U.N. Investigator, Sam Murphy, (Shawn Doyle, Big Love) she starts to unweave the web of intrigue and corruption that led to the murder in the first place.

Whiteout attempts to be a smart whodunit complete with twists and turns and red herrings, but the culprit is so obvious from the beginning that I’m afraid that people might even be able to see the ending coming  just from reading this review! The secret of the disappearing whatchamacalit is not a secret and is obvious from when the twist was first foreshadowed. The action sequences are also full of holes and very often very difficult to follow. (Why can people stand and move just fine when they are attached to a rope, but when that rope is cut, suddenly the wind blows them off their feet and across the ice?)  In general, the twist and the sequences are nice attempts, but just not working.

That’s a good way to describe the entire movie, really. I don’t mean to say the movie was all bad by any means. The acting of the principals was solid, the landscape shots from the air were breathtakingly beautiful and the movie did move at a steady, if slightly slow, pace. I left not thinking that I had really wasted my time and money, but more wishing that Whiteout had been a little more original and left some of the convention behind. I can’t really recommend Whiteout, but if you do happen to stumble upon it one day, at least you won’t be praying for snow blindness.

If You Like: Urban Legend, The Day After Tomorrow, Insomnia, then you might like Whiteout.

I recommend you: Queue It

Grade: C-