‘Whiteout’ should be blacked out

Sitting through “Whiteout” is like watching a young child put together a small puzzle while giving a play-by-play.

You don’t really know what is driving the action or why it is even happening, but at least things seem to make sense to the child even if the final product doesn’t look the same as the box cover.

“Whiteout” stars Kate Beckinsale as U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, who tries to solve a murder mystery in the bleak and frigid tundra of Antarctica.

The bigger mystery is why any production company would greenlight a script with such horrid dialogue (villain to Stetko: “You still owe me that strip search”). Her shining moment in the film is a sexy-but-unnecessary shower scene that introduces her character.

Filmed in Canada, the location shots are beautifully desolate and snow-covered but hardly make up for unmentionable acting performances and a shoddy story.

Toward the end, Tom Skerritt’s character is so fed up with being in the film that he chooses to walk into a dark blizzard rather than spend another minute destroying his career.