AFI

The Big White

 (Canada-New Zealand)

By ROBERT KOEHLER

An Echo Bridge Entertainment release of a Capitol Films/VIP Medienfonds 2/Ascendant Filmproduktion production in association with Rising Star. (International sales: Capitol Films, London.) Produced by Christopher Eberts, David Faigenblum, Chris Roberts. Executive producers, Jane Barclay, Hannah Leader, Michael Birnbaum, Andreas Schmid, Andy Grosch, John Schimmel, Kia Jam. Co-producer, Elaine Dysinger.
Directed by Mark Mylod. Screenplay, Colin Frieson.
 
Paul Barnell - Robin Williams
Margaret Barnell - Holly Hunter
Ted Watters - Giovanni Ribisi
Raymond Barnell - Woody Harrelson
Gary - Tim Blake Nelson
Tiffany - Alison Lohman
Jimbo - W. Earl Brown
 

Snowed under by misjudgment on every level, "The Big White" is DOA. Despite a cast that generally reads like an indie production's wish list, pic's tendency to liberally borrow from the Coen Brothers playbook of comic mayhem is exceeded only by its lack of sense of what's actually funny. Robin Williams understandably looks miserable as a financially drowning travel agent in a remote Alaskan town, exercising fraud to score $1 million. With an awards-qualifying Los Angeles opening set for mid-December, general commercial prospects, theatrically or ancillary, are frigid.

Paul (Williams), a beaten-down travel agent, is knee-deep in debt and living with wife Margaret (Holly Hunter) who appears to have Tourette's Syndrome. Paul's woes compound when his insurance company, in the person of dogged agent Ted (Giovanni Ribisi), rejects his claim to collect $1 million on his brother's body, missing for five years.

A corpse dumped by gangster henchmen Gary (Tim Blake Nelson) and Jimbo (W. Earl Brown) is conveniently discovered by Paul, who uses it to stage evidence of brother Raymond's grisly death. Local cops sign off on the death, and Paul even arranges a funeral to make it look proper, but ambitious Ted -- desperate for a promotion out of this Alaskan backwater to the Lower 48 -- sniffs out fraud like a bloodhound and won't let Paul receive his payout check until he's dotted every i.

The influence of the Coens' "Fargo" informs nearly every frame of "The Big White," and it seems that in the interest of doing something different, screenwriter Colin Friesen and director Mark Mylod decide to pile on whimsy upon oddity upon absurdity. Quicker than you can say "plot twist," who should show up but violence-prone Raymond (Woody Harrelson), complicating Paul's plans. Gary and Jimbo kidnap Margaret as leverage to recover their corpse, but because these are goofy henchmen, the trio bond cute in Margaret's kitchen.

A finale on a barren ice field brings every key character together for a tiresome exchange of gunfire and emotional outpouring, concluding on a note that hardly justifies the film's nature.

Williams strains to project an air of tragedy, and Hunter's performance as his foul-mouthed wife is best forgotten. Only Ribisi has a bead on his role's straight-arrow absurdity, while Nelson, Harrelson and Alison Lohman (as Ted's spacey g.f.) add to the pic's comic woes.

James Glennon's lensing in near Arctic environs is less effective than it should be, and other production credits are mediocre.

Camera (Deluxe color), James Glennon; editor, Julie Monroe; music, Mark Mothersbaugh; music supervisors, G. Marq Roswell, Mary Ramos; production designer, John Billington; art director, Julian Ashby; costume designer, Darena Snowe; sound (Dolby Digital), Louis Marion; supervising sound editor, Karen Baker Landers; special effects coordinators, Lou Carlucci, Ted Shackleton; visual effects, SFD VFX, Creative Post; visual effects supervisor, Chris "CB" Brown; stunt coordinator, Rick Skene; assistant director, Richard O'Brien-Moran; casting, Tricia Wood, Deborah Aquila. Reviewed at American Film Institute, Los Angeles, Oct. 14, 2005. (In AFI Los Angeles Film Festival.) Running time: 105 MIN.