The poorly scripted Whiteout goes blank early and often, ruining an otherwise interesting concept—an Antarctica mystery—with some of the worst lines in a movie this year. The whodunit is blatantly obvious, which might not be a problem if the film, starring Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. marshal, made us care about the characters or the puzzle, which involves a Soviet military plane that goes down in the South Pole. An aimless script, uneven performances, and bad directing—with countless unnecessary closeups—make Whiteout a painfully bad movie. For a straightforward Cold War thriller at the earth’s other polar ice cap, see Ice Station Zebra (Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown), based on an Alistair MacLean novel, instead.
