The Big White

Borrowing heavily from other snow-bound capers like Fargo and Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan, director Mark Mylod follows up his first feature Ali G Indahouse with this well-cast but erratic arse-around in Alaska.

With TV hits like The Fast Show, Cold Feet and Shameless under his belt, he has proven comedic savvy and an aptitude for handling multitudinous and multi-talented casts such as this.

But like one of its main characters, The Big White suffers from a kind of tonal Tourette's syndrome, veering between slapstick silliness, mean-spiritedness and awkward sentimentality.

These days, the latter is always a danger whenever Robin Williams is in town.

The man who put the Mork into mawkish with Good Will Hunting, Jakob The Liar and Patch Adams plays the straight-man here as Paul Barnell, a debt-ridden travel agent whose wife Margaret (Hunter) has a mouth as dirty as the roadside snow.

Actually, she's really cute but her psychological condition needs treatment that Paul can’t afford. In desperation, Paul tries to have his brother Raymond – missing for five years - declared dead so that he can cash in the life insurance policy.

Sadly, sighs slick claims adjuster Ted Watters (Ribisi), no corpse means no cash... Then Paul finds a body in a dumpster, and on goes the light bulb.

From Ribisi's terrier-like authority figure to the obligatory pair of inept goons who want the body back (Nelson and Deadwood's W Earl Smith) to the inevitable reappearance of bad dog brother Raymond (Harrelson), this is very familiar scam-gone-wrong territory.

The Big White is not without its chuckles and charms, however, and Mylod keeps it all flailing around at a nippy pace despite an unnecessary subplot involving Alison Lohman as Watters' neglected girlfriend.

On balance, this - and particularly the adorable Hunter who lights up every scene she's in - is an acceptable excuse for spending a cold night indoors.

Elliott Noble