Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
The only U.S. Marshal assigned to Antarctica, Carrie Stetko will soon leave the harsh environment behind for good – in three days, the sun will set and the Amundsen-Scott Research Station will shut down for the long winter. When a body is discovered out on the open ice, Carrie's investigation into the continent's first homicide plunges her deep into a mystery that may cost her her own life.
Whiteout has a genuinely interesting premise — a murder mystery set in Antarctica — and the frozen landscape provides some atmospheric cinematography that sets it apart visually. However, the plot is convoluted without being clever, relying on twists that feel unearned and a villain reveal that disappoints. Kate Beckinsale does what she can but the script gives her little to work with, and the supporting cast is largely forgettable. The Antarctic setting grants it some novelty points as a distinctively cold-climate noir, but the execution is by-the-numbers thriller territory. The ending resolves things too neatly and anticlimactically given the buildup, failing to capitalize on the tension the setting could have generated.