BOTTOM LINE: “Whiteout” takes an intriguing setup for a mystery thriller and delivers a pathetic mess of a film that barely registers in any department, save showing off Kate Beckinsale.

THE GOOD: “Whiteout” begins in a good place, setting its story in the harshest environment on Earth in Antarctica, and just before the beginning of the six-month long winter and night. US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) has been at her post for months, but is confronted with a mysterious killer whose motivations lead to a much wider plot involving a Russian cargo plane buried underneath the ice for fifty years. The film immediately differentiates itself from the standard thriller by its setting and its lead character. Kate Beckinsale looks good literally, and we get an arbitrary sequence where we see her all but naked before she takes a shower. Setting the film in Antarctica elevates the danger level, and leads to some different types of fight sequences, particularly at the end of the film as a huge storm blankets the area in question. “Whiteout” has an intriguing premise, and is engaging enough to make you want to sit through it, if only to see where it goes.

THE BAD: The film is a mess in many ways. The script does not encourage anything other than two-dimensional characters and an underwhelming climax. There are no ebbs and flows to the proceedings, which despite a few thrilling moments where the director has gone for the standard cattle-prod technique, leaves a film that does not engage you thanks largely to a story that promises much but does not deliver. In the end, you wonder, is that it? The intensity and gruesome nature of the murderer do not seem to be dramatically justified given the reasons why they were done. Kate Beckinsale seems woefully mis-cast as a law enforcement officer, which seems strange given how strong she was in the Underworld movies. And despite accurately describing how dangerous Antarctica is at the beginning of the film, by the end of the film, this idea of danger is sacrificed in order to deliver some outside action sequences which seem ridiculous given how strong the storm at the end of the film is; not only do the characters walk around, but they seem to have the strength to beat the hell out of each other in well below freezing temperatures with hurricane-force winds. “Whiteout” is yet another example of a good idea wasted by terrible execution.