WHITEOUT

US, 2009, 101 minutes, Colour.
Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Tom Skerritt, Columbus Short, Alex O’ Loughlin.
Directed by Dominic Sena.

Under all the snow and ice and the exotic Antarctica settings, this is a rather routine murder mystery plus theft. The beginning of the southern hemisphere winter and evacuation of the base provides an interesting location for the work of American Marshal, Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) and some hazards for the law and for the criminals.

It opens with the crash of a Russian plane in 1957 – which means the discovery of the plane decades later and the theft of what might be nuclear material by person or persons unknown on the Antarctic base.

For a slender actress, Kate Beckinsale has become something of an action movie icon (the Underworld series) and is both tough and vulnerable here (courtesy of some flashbacks to her Chicago police past). Gabriel Macht is an FBI investigator who helps and has to fight the villain in snow and ice gales. Tom Skerritt is the benign about-to-retire doctor.

There are some more deaths, desperation in the snow, a confrontation and a final revelation (on a base in Antarctica there are limited personnel, therefore, suspects) of who is the hidden ally. With the short list of possibilities, the culprit will be on your list, perhaps on top of the list.

1.Murder mystery? Thriller? Antarctic setting?

2.The locations making the difference for the film, the South Pole, the snow and the mountains, the expanses, the snowstorms, the sky and the lights? Exotic setting for a routine mystery? Musical score?

3.The title, the reference to the weather, the storms, accessibility?

4.The prologue, the Russians, 1957, the flight, over the Antarctic? The pilots, the attack on the men, shooting them, the death of the two pilots, the crash? The mystery – and the suggestions that there was atomic material? The irony that it was diamonds?

5.The present, the bases in Antarctica? Elaborate, the machinery, the technology? The living quarters for the workers? The men running naked in the snow, the canteens, the offices, the infirmary? The machinery and the studies of geology and other aspects of Antarctica? Credible? The other outposts? Travel by plane, sled? The dangers?

6.The discovery of the dead body? The mystery? The return to the site? Carrie falling through the ice, the plane? The exploration of the plane, Carrie reconstructing what happened, the death of the geologist and his injury? The murder? The taking of the contents? The collaboration, the partner at the base? The snowfall and the ice covering the plane? Pryce and his ingenuity in getting them out? The return to base?

7.Carrie as marshal? The flashbacks to the assault, her partner, the betrayal? Her shooting him, his death? The repercussions, her feelings of guilt, punishing herself, going to the Antarctic? Wanting to leave and get out?

8.The challenge of the case, going to the outpost, finding Muldoon, his death? The mystery killer? Her help with the doctor? The corpses? Sending them to headquarters? Her freezing in the snow, her hand, her fingers? The need for them to be amputated? The effect on her? The irony of seeing the knot?

9.Her collaboration with Delfy, his being a good assistant, pilot? Trapped in the plane? At the base, his being shot? Recovering?

10.Pryce, the FBI, Carrie’s suspicions? A possible killer? His collaboration with Carrie, his insight into her problems? Trapped in the plane, using his ingenuity? The further detection, the rescuing of Carrie, the fight with Haden?

11.Haden, the loud Australian, pilot? His casual remarks? The irony that he turned out to be the villain, the pilot, his collaboration with the doctor? The pursuit, the fight in the ice, his death?

12.The doctor, genial man, past history, returning to the United States? Kind towards Carrie? The revelation that he was the partner, the information about the diamonds, his hopes? His not wanting the murders to take place? His decision to walk into the snow and ice?

13.Sam, in charge of the base, his problems, working with Carrie, the need to evacuate? The planes ready, Carrie and the others not going? His sending back the information, the manifesto? Carrie, following it through, discovering the truth?

14.Conventional thriller material, murder mystery, theft – in the Antarctic?