Quirky crime/dramedy with loads of black humor tries a little too hard
The owner of a small travel agency in Alaska (Robin Williams) loves his wife with Tourette Syndrome (Holly Hunter), but he’s financially strapped and needs funds fast. After stumbling upon a frozen corpse he hatches a harebrained scheme that draws the suspicion of an obsessed insurance claims investigator (Giovanni Ribisi). Alison Lohman plays the latter’s live-in girlfriend while Woody Harrelson plays the protagonist’s wild brother. Tim Blake Nelson and W. Earl Brown are also on hand as goofy wannabe hitmen.
“The Big White” (2005) is similar to “Fargo” (1996), but more eccentric and comedic. Imagine “A Simple Plan” (1998) or the later “Sugar Mountain” (2016) if they were oddball black comedies and you’d have a good idea.
The cast is notable and it’s entertaining enough for what it is while attempting to balance the unsavory with the honorable, but it tries a bit too hard to be offbeat (which I suppose is better than not trying enough). Meanwhile the locations & cinematography are great, Lohman is stunning in a cute way and the score is exceptional.
The movie runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Whitehorse, Yukon. The bulk of the outdoor sequences and cinematography were shot at summit of the White Pass along the border of Alaska and British Columbia, not far from Skagway.
GRADE: B-/C+
2020-03-16
