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.
