People in the Movie: Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Tom Skerritt
Director: Dominic Sena
Pigeonhole: Thriller / Mystery / Comic Book
The Basics: U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) finds herself in
the middle of a murder investigation in the most unlikely of places –
Antarctica. Not only is the outside
environment as deadly as the killer lurking the shadows, but Carrie is also
fighting against the clock. The research
base that all the suspects and potential victims are located at is about to
close for 6 months for the winter, and once off Antarctica, the killer will
likely escape.
Recommendation: Sena really
made the Antarctic environment its own character (and rightfully so) with great
visuals and tailoring the action when the actors were out “in it”. Even watching this movie in the hot summer,
your mind really believes how bitterly cold Antarctica would be. On this idea alone, the movie is worth a viewing. ‘R’ rating is for violence, language, some
gory images, and very brief nudity.
My Take: The film was adapted from a small run comic book series of
the same name. The movie plays out like
a typical cop drama, and the ending is somewhat predictable, but Sena kept the
pace moving well enough not to get boring, plus there were enough believable
scenarios to “keep you guessing” about several plot points until the end. Alex O’Laughlin also has a small supporting
role, so the film has some decent star power, as well.
**spoiler alert** The movie opens with the audience witnessing a
Soviet military plane crash in 1957– a result of the crew killing each other over a
crate on board the plane. Fast forward
50 years to a US research base on Antarctica, where we see the ‘residents’
celebrating, as it is time to leave because winter is coming. Carrie and her friend Doc (Skerritt) are
talking about going back to the US, both with somewhat reserved
anticipation. Carrie is soon dispatched
to check on a possible dead body, far off the base. (Most of the travelling we notice appears to
be done via small hopper-type planes and snow cats.) The body is quickly identified as a US geologist
and brought back to base where they realize this man was murdered – but not
where they found his body. Doc seems as
if he going to let the incident go – meaning to not pursue the investigation
any further- to insure he and Carrie are able to leave by the winter deadline
flight out. Carrie hesitantly agrees until
she is contacted by one of the possible suspects at another research base. She flies out to meet this person, finds him
bleeding out from the throat, and is attacked by another masked man and
subsequently injured. A UN Investigator
named Pryce (Macht) mysteriously appears at the research base after Carrie has
regained consciousness, claiming he was dispatched there to aid in the murder
investigation. Carrie and Pryce,
following some clues, discover the wrecked Soviet plane and realize something
was taken out, and their two dead researchers were clearly involved in whatever it is that is happening. The two must now work fast to catch the
suspect before he kills again or leaves with the missing cargo.
The rest of the movie plays out
as a cat and mouse type crime thriller, with the unforgiving Antarctic environment
playing into all the scenery and as its own dangerous character. As the investigation proceeds we also see
several flashbacks of why Carrie chose to take an isolated assignment like the
one she now has in Antarctica. Fighting
injury, time, the cold, and trust issues, Carrie has to dig deep to solve the
case and survive.
As I am often fond of saying, I would
like to have seen what hit the cutting room floor, because I feel a little more
development of the characters, and a little more time building tension through
the investigation, could have made this movie “that” much better. As it stands, it is a tense little crime film,
and while it’s not award winning by any means, it is certainly worth a rainy
day afternoon viewing, mostly because it is nice to see a murder mystery take
place somewhere other than New York or Los Angeles. The ending, lacking the aforementioned
development, seemed to be bit ho-hum to me, but as I noted above, at least it
kept me guessing.
Final Thoughts/ Extras/ For Fun: Production of this movie completed
in 2007, but did not release until 2009, which is never usually a good sign…
The DVD did not really have any good extras, which was kind of a let-down…
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