Whiteout – Movie Review

Written on September 14, 2009 by Marc Eastman in Movies

Though Whiteout is likely to bring in a fury of negative critical response, there’s something there in this slow-paced thriller, even if it might only be the ability to pique interest in the graphic novel from which it evolved. There may not be anything particularly good about it, but there isn’t much that stands out as bad about either, except (as many critics are sure to tell you) insofar as not having anything particularly good makes a movie bad.

The truth, however, is that the movie’s main problem is only that we’re used to this grade of material coming out directly on television, and the thing (I suspect) doesn’t really understand the source material. The film feels like something that should have worked a fairly intense character deconstruction amid a desolate backdrop that in itself references that character and does its own battle with her… much like Insomnia, for example. It’s not that this is not the theory behind a fine film, but that nothing remotely like this happens in this one.

Kate Beckinsale play Carrie Stetko, the U.S. Marshall serving at the research facility in Antarctica. As basically the only law enforcement officer for the entire continent, Carrie has her hands full with all manner of petty shenanigans and meaningless trivia. Until someone turns up dead just days before she’s due to transfer away from the cold and isolation.

The movie opens with a scene from the ’50s, which involves Russians in an airplane and a struggle over a mysterious box. The plane goes down, and we’re clued in to what obviously must be behind the killing, so only Carrie gets much in the way of surprises. Once we start investigating, a U.N. agent shows up, and because Carrie came to Antarctica because of her trust issues, she’s very nervous about having anyone around who isn’t wearing a black hat.

There’s a killer on the loose, a massive storm on the way, and nowhere to go. If someone is looking to kill people, and he can’t really be hiding outside… well, then tension and so forth… yet, somehow, not so much.

As I said, whatever might be said about the film, it isn’t that anything goes especially wrong. If you’re looking for a thriller with a bit of a twist in its locale, and you don’t expect too much, I suspect you won’t be overly disappointed. This is the sort of effort that doesn’t fail so much in what is actually there, but in what might have been there. I haven’t actually read the graphic novel, but now that I’ve seen the movie, I have imagined what it must be like in my mind, and even that is better than the film… that’s not something you want said about your theatrical release.

The worst part of the missed opportunity is that Beckinsale is actually pretty good at times, and Tom Skerritt (as her friend, Antarctica’s doctor) does quite well when he’s around. The fault really has to rest with director Dominic Sena, and I think his inability here should have been clear from the beginning. With Kalifornia, Gone in Sixty Seconds, and Swordfish as his efforts not in the realm of music video, you’ve got to be able to see that it is unlikely he can deliver what this film needs.

Can he knock out a somewhat passable time-killer, with a guy in black swinging an ax at people? Sure. Want proof? But, can he take this film to its potential? Not by a longshot.

It might have been an interesting exploration of Carrie’s past, her decision to be in Antarctica, and a wild interplay of her psyche and her environment. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t give us any of these things, it just says some of them at us, and it delivers an Antarctica that beyond all belief never really feels very cold or desolate.

If this is your genre, you might be able to get something out of it, otherwise stay away.

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