Review - White Out

Kate Beckinsale stars in White Out, the latest graphic novel movie adaptation. It is directed by Dominic Sena and tells an atmospheric story of a young female US marshall named Carrie Stetko (played by Kate) who is working in Anartica alongside a large, multi-national group of scientists. Her friend that we see from the beginning is Dr. John Fury (played by Tom Skerritt). He is portrayed as a older man with a grand daughter he has never seen, hoping he can get back to the US soon so he can spend time with her.

Things get interesting when Carrie is sent out to investigate the discovery of a dead man who obviously died under very suspicious circumstances. Things get deeper with a sudden appearance of a guy sent by the UN to investigate. His name is Robert Pryce (played by Gabriel Macht). From here the game of trust begins.

At the start of the movie we don't really know too much about the characters. And in a strong way that's where alot of the plot is. We learn more about Carrie through a gradual sequence of flashbacks of traumatic events that expalin the deepness of her character. We also learn more about the other characters that plays into the ending of the film.

White Out also interestingly shows glimpses of the "masked killer - mystery" genre that originated with Prom Night (1980). It's not the main plot of the movie but it's there and I didn't really expect to see it.

The atmosphere of the movie is very effective. The snow and the wind disguise alot of what's happening similar to being in the dark. It reminds me of the atmosphere in The Thing (1982), 30 Days of Night (2007), and The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008).

Although White Out is a good movie, there are some things I would have liked to have had. Mainly more drama and emotion dedicated to the conclusion. The ending was set up well but didn't really get driven home as powerfully as it could have been. Unfortunately, as Johnny Depp tells us in Secret Window: "The ending is the most important part". The ending of White Out didn't get it all the way done for me. But this is a good movie nonetheless...

...RENT IT