US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is so depressed by a spell in Antarctica brooding over her traumatic backstory that she’s on the point of quitting – then a mangled body turns up out on the ice, an axe killer attacks, she gets deadly frostbite, a suspiciously helpful FBI guy (Gabriel Macht) shows up and a mystery unravels around a Soviet plane which crashed 50 years earlier.
Though films as varied as The Thing and Encounters At The End Of The World have made much of similar settings, this is just a predictable whodunit where the heroine’s job is occasionally complicated by blizzards and difficulties staying clipped to guide-ropes in high winds. It has lovely snowscapes and Kate taking a gratuitous shower, but the trite story isn’t up to the visual splendours.