MANILA, Philippines ? In the new murder-mystery-thriller, ?Whiteout,? Kate Beckinsale plays a US marshall who accepts an assignment to the most ?hardship? post of all, an environmental research station on the North Pole.

The assignment is extremely arduous, but the handful of dedicated people at the station experience a unique kind of peace. Living so close to nature at its most starkly beautiful, they feel blessed and safe?until, for the first time in many decades, the Pole is shattered by acts of violence and murder.

Peace and order

Thus, the US marshall played by Beckinsale has her work cut out for her, not just to restore peace and order at the remote station, but also to track down and subdue those responsible for the bloody murders. That, it turns out, is much easier said than done.

Beckinsale?s character soon discovers that her own life is in danger. As she looks around for clues, she falls through a shaft in the ice and is confronted with a most unusual sight: The fuselage of a Soviet warplane that was declared missing more than 50 years ago.

In time, Beckinsale is able to figure out what happened to the plane, and why it?s relevant to the solution of the current crimes. She also learns that the most cruel and inhospitable acts of nature are no match to human criminals? even more shocking acts of violence and desperation.

She also learns not to trust anybody at the station, including some of the researchers she?s befriended but who turn out to be capable of extreme acts of evil.

Climactic sequence

Everything comes to a head when the station is locked in for the long winter months, and the killers attempt to escape unseen and unpunished. In this long, climactic sequence, the film?s violent drama reaches its peak, even as nature?s wrath results in a ?whiteout? storm that renders everyone practically blind. Thus, they must fight for their lives without even knowing for sure where their adversaries are.

This makes for a truly gripping fight to the finish, the excitement of which is blunted only by the scene?s excessive length. But, the eventual tedium of the extended fight to the death is salved by the glorious sight of the lovely aurora borealis after the storm, a hushed and breathtaking display of corruscating forms and colors that restores the deep sense of peace that God?s pluperfect creation bestows on the film?s grateful viewers.