On the frozen continent of Antarctica, where summer is a continual day and winter a continual night, a small community of scientists from a variety of nations works together to solve puzzles that can be tackled nowhere else on Earth. But Dr. Jerri Nielsen (Susan Sarandon) didn't come to Antarctica for science, but for medicine: to serve as the resident doctor for the small group of hardy researchers who would "winter over" in Antarctica, and in a more personal sense, to get away from her personal life.

Ice Bound is based on the true story of Dr. Nielsen's stay in Antarctica; its drama comes from the fact that soon after the last plane took off, not to return until eight months later, she discovered that she had breast cancer. The film is the story of her struggle to stay alive, to treat herself and to reach out to other members of the Antarctic team for help.

As far as drama goes, Ice Bound is fairly weak. Susan Sarandon is reasonably believable as Dr. Nielsen, but the script and story is just a bit too flimsy to support any real drama. Rather predictably, her efforts to beat the cancer lead to introspection and a change in the way she approaches life in general; it's not terrible but it's not really compelling either. The story also tends to sag a bit toward the end, and I get the sense that the filmmakers were stretching to fill a full hour and a half; for instance, there's an overly long montage of images set to music that has "padding" written all over it.

The best part of Ice Bound, and what makes it worth watching, is the glimpse it gives us into life in Antarctica. The temperature gets so low (down to 100 below zero in the winter) that many of the things we take for granted even in the winter are nearly impossible, or have to be very carefully arranged. Trash disposal, patching up a cut finger, keeping track of time, even a simple thing like taking a hot shower all become more difficult in the extreme cold of Antarctica, and of course there are new challenges like caring for the backup generators on which the survival of the camp depends, or taking care not to get lost in the trackless snow.

The DVD

Video

Ice Bound is presented in a generally quite attractive anamorphic widescreen transfer, at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio; this appears to be its original aspect ratio. The print is clean and clear, which is especially important since the wide expanses of snow and sky in many of the shots would show up any noise in the image. Some edge enhancement appears, but it's not too noticeable. Colors look natural, and on the whole the image is quite solid. The only thing that detracts from the overall image quality of Ice Bound is the fact that the film often interleaves the studio footage of the film with actual film footage of the real Antarctic base. I'm sure that this was done to emphasize that this is a dramatization of real events, but in practice it's rather jarring. The real-life shots are of a noticeably poorer image quality and stand out rather obviously. (It's also amusing to notice details like the way the real inhabitants of the Antarctic base are much more muffled up than the actors.)

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack of Ice Bound is adequate for this dialogue-focused film. It doesn't create any ambiance of actually being in Antarctica, but the actors' voices are clear and easy to understand. A French dubbed soundtrack is also provided.

Extras

There are no special features on this DVD.

Final thoughts

Ice Bound is a light-weight piece of entertainment, suitable for whiling away a rainy (or better, snowy) afternoon if you've nothing else particularly in mind. Its strength is in the depiction of life in Antarctica rather than the story of Dr. Nielsen, but if you're a fan of Susan Sarandon, she does a decent job here and is worth watching. Rent it.