Hollywood hues
Weak plot

After the initial spurt of action, Dominic Sena’s Whiteout runs out of steam and tends
to chug along inconspicuously, says Ervell E. Menezes 

WHAT's a beautiful young woman doing out in the bitter cold of Antarctica? The woman in question is US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) who is finishing her term as the only law-enforcing authority in that region when the mangled body of a scientist shows up. It must be murder and that’s the starting point of Whiteout, a moderately engrossing whodunit in sub-zero temperature.

It is a case of medical expeditions and the Soviet hunt for prizes is still on. There’s American doctor John Fury (Tom Skerritt) in the group and also UN investigator Gabriel Machet (Robert Price). So it’s a motley lot to say nothing of those who may have survived a plane crash months before.

Suspicion is sprinkled like mustard and the establishing shots make for an impressive start. As winter dawns and the prospect of six months of winter are at hand, Carrie mounts her search for the killer hoping to finish before the last plane leaves out of the region.

In conditions akin to Ice Station Zebra and The Wild North, the setting is impressive. In typical Hollywood style, Kate Beckinsale wastes no time disrobing and taking a shower but that’s all. With mangled bodies turning up, it is blood and gore, which is further accentuated when the one-woman army heroine Carrie has to have her two fingers amputated. That’s where Dr Fury comes in but he and Carrie have known each other long and could romance be far behind?

Not unexpectedly there are red herrings but the fare soon drifts into the realms of predictability. The plot is weak, the dialogue laughable at best, the flashbacks are tedious. Inscrutable action scenes are rare but there is sameness about the action that tends to numb the viewer into inactivity.

Director Dominic Sena is endowed with an interesting story but the screenplay by John and Eric Huber could have been more imaginative. But after the initial spurt of action, the story runs out of steam and tends to chug along inconspicuously.

The fare is just 101 minutes long but seems much longer with a plethora of action sequences in dim lighting. Kate Beckinsale does her bit but there is scarcely any real acting she is called upon to do. Tom Skerritt, now fully grey, also hams his way around and Robert Price as the investigator is purely academic. When all is said and done, Whiteout flatters only to deceive and not even Kate Beckinsale can turn on the heat.

HOME