Before dropping us into this single-setting, claustrophobic thriller, first-time feature director Brendan Walsh plays the inspired-by-actual-events card, suggesting the story that follows strays so far from reality it may need its credibility preemptively shored up. Ninety-some minutes later, credibility is likely to be the last of an exhausted viewer's concerns.
As the film opens, American novelist Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and husband Matt (Vincent Piazza) wake in their rented SUV on the side of a remote road somewhere in Norway. Having dozed off while waiting out a snowstorm, they now find themselves stranded beneath a layer of snow and ice: engine dead, doors well and truly frozen shut and cell phone out of range.
What to do?
Naomi, who, it turns out, is in her final month of pregnancy—never mind the realities of OB-GYN or airline restrictions on international flight and cross-country travel—advocates for breaking a window and digging out. Matt, however, resists abandoning the provisional safety of their sealed vehicle for the unknown conditions outside. It's the first but not the last difference that will arise between the two as they (and we) wait and wait ... and wait for rescue.
At this point, a filmmaker must decide whether to use the confined set and limited cast to explore character and relationships, to develop a slow-burn suspense or to plunge viewers into the horrors of hunger, isolation and deprivation. The script by Walsh and Daley Nixon, however, never commits to a direction, and as a result, often seems to be treading water, much like its subjects in the SUV.
Developments vary from the predictable (does anyone not know what this pregnancy will lead to? One episode of “Call the Midwife” holds more suspense) to the irrelevant (a bit of news from Matt intended as a bombshell barely makes an impression and is quickly forgotten, much like the tin of chocolates conspicuously introduced in an early scene). Arguments are sprinkled in throughout the proceedings yet reveal little about the history or nature of this married couple's relationship, leaving viewers trapped for the duration with two generally unlikable people who don't seem to like each other much, either.