Review of Whiteout (2009) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

The phrase that comes to mind regarding this movie is run of the mill. It struck me that the cast were going through the motions during this - its a pretty regular thriller, which relies on some fairly old formulas and doesn't really work too well overall. Why do I say that? well for one I didn't find myself really engaging with it. I felt that I could second guess what would happen and I didn't feel overly interested in the characters, which is a big flaw for any movie. Some of the dialogue seemed predictable and the shock expressed in certain scenes just didn't come across genuinely somehow, so it didn't fare well with me overall.

I didn't completely follow the plot as I felt I lost interest by the end of the first hour. There is quite a strong use of incidental music used to add tension and try to hook you in, to keep you glued to your TV etc. but at the end of the day, I just didn't buy it somehow. The fact that in some scenes you couldn't see a great deal due to the environment (heavy snowdrifts etc.) probably confused me more than anything else, trying to identify what was going on but overall I didn't feel the tension and suspense that the film makers were presumably hoping - I felt like something was missing, perhaps not enough is known about Carries background? im not entirely sure. I think that the story seemed a bit far fetched and the characters were underdeveloped - if anyone, the only character I think that particularly stood out was that of Dr. John Fury - an aging doctor who somehow seemed more interesting than the other characters, generally.

Content wise, there are some scenes which aren't for the squeamish, such as one scene where someone is threatened with having her finger broken off (ew). There is also some strong language and some scenes which may possibly make you jump, its about what you'd expect from a thriller movie. There is some action I suppose but there's also a fair amount of basic dialogue between characters.

Funnily enough, no I wouldn't recommend this film. I felt this movie was quite bland and formulaic and it just didn't seem very absorbing. The plot wasn't developed enough and I think more background information on some of the characters may have helped, though we know some about the main character Carrie but perhaps somehow not quite enough to really care about the ultimate outcome. It felt very much like a typical movie of its sort without anything to make it especially memorable or to set it apart from others, so I wouldn't recommend it on that basis.