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RATING:   
SINGAPORE : Years from now, British starlet Kate Beckinsale might look back at her choice of film roles and wonder why she did not make a follow up to the “Underworld” vampire series instead of this frigid film that left us cold.
Given director Dominic Sena’s penchant for fast cars (“Gone In 60 Seconds”) and explosions (“Swordfish”), one would expect a lot more in terms of action sequences in “Whiteout”. With the exception of a plane crash that opens the film, things fall limp here and get about as exciting as a snowball fight.
Set in Antarctica, “the coldest, harshest and most isolated place on Earth”, a killer is on the loose and it is up to the only law enforcement there, US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) to save the day.
Stationed there at a scientific research base, Stetko finds herself in the midst of investigations following the discovery of a dead body.
With the sun about to set for the next six months, she has to race against time and daylight to solve the case and find the killer.
As she delves deeper into the murder, she crosses paths with a UN operative Robert Pryce (Gabriel Macht) who may be a potential love interest and killer suspect. Tom Skerritt plays a doctor and friend of Stetko.
Without giving too much away, let’s just say that the earlier mentioned Russian aircraft that crashed onto the icy continent and now buried deep in snow has something to do with the murder.
As more murders unfold, Stetko has difficulty trying to resolve the killer’s identity and finds that her investigations are gong nowhere, and so does the film.
It cannot quite decide if wants to be a crime drama, murder mystery or slasher flick. Perhaps it is best described as a whodunit on ice, without much suspense.
Taking advantage of the locale, the film offers plenty of stark and endless snow-capped scenery.
One is hard pressed to believe that this was based on a graphic novel, given its lack of arresting visuals. Bad acting coupled with a poor script that provided unintentionally funny dialogue did not help either.
Looking silly at times here in a performance that sees her thinking out loud a lot, Beckinsale’s character experiences traumatic recollections of a mission gone wrong. Instead of moving the plot forward, these flashbacks were jarring and disruptive to the flow of the movie.
“Whiteout” is one of those films where the trailer was actually more interesting than the final product itself and treads on thin ice throughout, barely able to balance itself by the end.
- CNA/il
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