Antarctica: A Year On Ice

Way too much screen time is given over to folks describing what it's like to live in such a place, as opposed to, you know, actually living there.

"Antarctica" ultimately does evoke a sense of the place - its magnificent emptiness and inhuman, unspoiled purity.

It is the simple glimpses of ordinary life in an extraordinary place that are the most stirring moments in the film.

Powell makes excellent use of time-lapse photography to capture such natural phenomena as a sea freezing over. What registers most strongly, though, is the sense of loneliness and professional drudgery.

Mostly what you get is a chronicle of tedious routine carried out in a killing climate. That gives this documentary a flavor that is strong and genuine. Just not very appealing.

A documentary that's essentially a tribute to a hardy group of people who've made a life on the ice.

Technically, it is far superior to an average installment of PBS's Nature, but it has the same general niceness and similar tacked-on messages.

Under incredibly harsh conditions, Powell captures the outstanding beauty of the ice, the active volcano near McMurdo, the wildlife, the ice-cold water and the amazing night sky with stars so bright, it's almost blinding.

If nothing else, watching the documentary "Antarctica: A Year on Ice" makes a Wisconsin February go down a little easier

You'll want to wear a sweater to the theater.

Powell doesn't let tiny details slip by.

The movie shows precisely what the title suggests: the changing seasons in that desolate place, and the folks who decide to endure them.