Go ahead, take your time
No, really, it's ok. I'll wait
OK, all done? Splendid. You may want to wipe the popcorn butter off your chin
Whiteout is a murder mystery that takes place in Antarctica. That would be difficult to tell by watching the original trailers for the movie. It made it look like some kind of B horror movie, like the Thing.
But a murder mystery it is, with a US Marshal Carrie Stenko at its chief protagonist. A big part of the pleasure of the book was Carrie's character. In terms of a mystery, a whodunit, the book was not strong, it was not difficult to figure it out but its real power was in its characterizations and its utilization of its unique settings.
Much was made of the fact that Carrie was the only "law enforcement" figure in this remote environment populated mostly by men
Carrie is tough, something the men respond to, but it's a toughness that comes, in part, out of past fears and in part from the fact that she is a woman, stranded on the bottom of the planet with all these men, and she needs their respect for her position.
In the comic, Carrie is short, freckled, funny, smart, vulnerable, stocky and bad ass when she needs to be. She has a past where her badassery leads to consequences she may or may not regret so it's clear that she tries to keep this aspect of her character in check.
In the movie Carrie is played by Kate Beckinsale. Ms Beckinsale is a gorgeous woman with the tall, willowy looks of a model. She can be bad ass, as witnessed by her Underworld movies. Badass in skin tight leathers, of course, but who am I to complain.
In the movie we see Carrie's reluctance to kick ass but it never seems to come from a position of strength. Right from the beginning, Carrie seems "soft" And it's not just the famous white undies/shower scene. That scene was in the book as it well but it was used to trigger a flashback, which doesn't happen in the movie
I'm going to continue pointing out differences between the book and movie but I want to make this clear: I'm not some fan boy who gets his Luke Skywalker underroos in a tangle because in my favorite comic book one character had a black mustache and in the movie it was blonde. I understand literature and I understand movies and while graphic novels have a cinematic quality to them, they are not movies; movies have different requirements from the static written page. I was fine, overall, with the changes made to Watchmen the movie. I thought what was left out did not hurt the narrative flow; some of the changes in character were more troubling but overall I thought it was a good adaption
Having said that, changes from book to movie should serve some purpose. There are a lot of changes from Whiteout graphic novel to film and some of them puzzle me. And some of them open a different debate.
One of these important changes was Carrie's backstory. Why did she take this assignment? Why does the potential of violence cause her to tremble and tear up?
In both versions it stems from an incident in Miami with a prisoner. That's where the similarities end. In the book, Carrie is guarding a despicable rapist/child molester/sexual predator. In the movie Carrie and her partner are guarding a drug lord. In the book, the scum bag gets free, beats Carrie up and threatens to "do" her and her family. In the movie, the scum gets free and Carrie has to shoot him. In the book Carrie subdues the scum but he basically lets her know he will plead insanity, get free and wreak havoc. So although he is in shackles, Carrie does him in. In the movie, it's revealed that Carrie's partner let the prisoner free; he is being paid by the drug cartel and wanted the prisoner to kill Carrie and go free. Bad things happen to the partner.
The change in this backstory is not necessarily "bad" The book version explains Carrie's reluctance to use force, it gives us insight to why she may not trust herself in certain situations and why she is hiding at the bottom of the world. The movie version builds distrust for other people, particularly partners and that opens up the most significant difference from book to movie
In the movie, during her investigations of the murders at the South Pole, Carrie finds herself reluctantly partnered with a "UN investigator". As you can assume from the pic above, he's a guy, your typical movie big boy scout action figure. He seems to come out of nowhere (interesting in the most isolated place on earth) and Carrie doesn't know if she should trust him
In the book, the second investigator is a person with the British expedition, who is probably some kind of spook. And she's a female. And that's where the gender politics come in.
I'm forced to ask myself why they changed the gender of this character. The obvious answer would be create romantic potential between Ms Beckinsale and her male cohort. Except ...
In the book, Carrie is assumed to be a lesbian. Mind you, this assumption comes from a bunch of men, isolated from the world, and disappointed by the fact that the only female in their proximity is not dropping her panties for them, surely, she must be a dyke!
In the book there is an implied potential romance between Carrie and her British counterpart. This romance is never actually consummated but what is real is the friendship that develops between the two women. There is a great deal of skepticism at first; Carrie has to understand the Brit's motives in the mystery and there is also some professional jealousy. But there is also a bound, a kind of kinship, that joins these two women in this unique environment. It's a bond that does eventually develop into a friendship (and perhaps a romance) and it saves Carrie
As I said, the actual mystery in Whiteout is not its strongest aspect. What really makes the story work are the characterizations and the attention placed to its unique setting. In the movie, the relationship between Carrie and the male investigator goes nowhere. There is zero chemistry between the two actors, so any potential romance seems unlikely. And instead of a slowly built grudging respect between the two, based on shared experiences, we get something different in the movie. The male investigator is more like the white knight, uber capable and constantly bailing Carrie's ass out of the fire, or ice as it were.
Changing Carrie's back story was not a bad decision. The one the movie supposes is as good as the book's really. But changing the gender of the second investigator really weakened the story. The relationship in the book between the two women, whether or not they become lovers, is one of the things that really drove the story for me
What was Hollywood scared of? Is a woman lead, even a kick ass Kate Beckinsale, not enough to carry an action movie?
I understand that Hollywood always wants to engender a romance, is a lesbian romance something so distasteful to the average audience? Or perhaps just distasteful to producers and distributors. I would think that there would be enough prurient interest in Ms Beckinsale snogging with another "hot chick" to make this a marketer's dream. Perhaps Ms Beckinsale disapproved, I don't really know.
As I said, I'm not one of these fanboys who revel and froth over every tiny change between book and movie. But this one is a big mistake for me. The relationship between the two tough, capable women in this incredibly male world, was something refreshing and interesting. In the movie we just have two people of opposite genders who will probably tumble into bed together but for no other reason than that they are two pretty people of the opposite gender ...
So the mystery in Whiteout the movie is not the whodunnit, but rather the whydidthey .. why did they switch the gender of this important character. In this day and age I'm a bit disappointed, I must say.
There is a sequel to Whiteout the graphic novel. I have yet to read it but I'm looking forward to it. Will there be a romance between Carrie and the Brit? Or will the other woman be revealed to be in actuality Sven, a Swedish super secret agent in deep deep deep cover .. Oh wait, that will probably be the next movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment