Whiteout 2009

Based on a graphic novel, the first scene of this movie is of an old transport plane flying over Antarctica in 1957 and ends with the plane crashing after a gunfight and some Vodka swilling by it's occupants over a box on the plane.

Flash forward to present day at a research facility at the South Pole where Carrie Setko (Kate Beckinsale) is the resident U.S. Marshall. Within a few minutes, we already get our gratuitous shot of her stripping and getting into the shower. She also seems to have the ability to repel hat hair even after wearing hoods and those big Russian hats that I would get hat head with after about 30 seconds of wearing anything on my head. The film also includes Tom Skerritt as the facility doctor, Gabriel Macht a U.N. investigator and Alex O'Loughlin who was previously a vampire in a show called "Moonlight". A few days before the winter replacement personnel take over for the departing staff (past a certain date, no planes can take off or land as it is so cold that fuel will not run)a body is found in a remote location by a pilot. On further investigation it is found to be murder. Several other murders are committed during the course of the film and Setko must deal with this before a huge storm comes in so that she can make it out before the planes leave for the winter and she is stuck there for months.

You would think that a murderer running around during a whiteout would be interesting. Nope. There was not much excitement and the "surprise" ending was not unexpected. The most interesting thing about this movie was the setting and the dangers that the people stationed here face.

I read a book called "Ice Bound" by Dr. Jerri Nielsen in which she took a job as the doctor at a research facility at the south Pole for a year. Most of the book describes life at the facility over the winter and was very interesting. The movie actually includes much of the same things that I saw in the movie right down to the Streakers doing their thing (in temps WELL below 0) before they go home. The doctor, while at the facility, descovers that she has breast cancer and does her own biopsy and gives herself her own chemo treatments with drugs dropped by planes because the planes can't land. You can get it at the library, it's worth reading.

Overall this movie was not very entertaining. Wait til it is available at the library and check it out for free. I give it TWO AND A HALF STARS.