Beautiful effects but forgot the story

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2004)

**HERE BE SPOILERS**
Jack Hall (Quaid) is a climatologist workaholic and absent father. During a conference he warns that the melting of polar ice might in the future be enough to disturb the ocean distribution of heat from the equator to northern regions (this concern is for real people, even if a lot of other "facts" in the movie seem implausible). Naturally the politicians don't take him seriously, accusing him of not considering all the facts and just talking out of a scientific point of view, not considering economics or politics. He returns home to continue his work. At the same time his son Sam (Gyllenhaal) goes to New York to be in a science competition. Unfortunately Jack's predictions seem to come true in a matter of weeks. The mother of all storms evolve devastating everything it passes and bringing the next ice age in its wake. New York is in the middle of it all and Sam and his friends get stuck at the public library. Now Jack has to go get to him.
The idea to the story, the effects and views are stunning. Unfortunately those things cannot cover all the holes that the story then uncovers. For example, a crucial point in the movie is that, at the middle of the storm cool air is sucked down to the ground, freezing everything instantly. I seriously doubt a lot of things in these scenes. For one thing, the cold will not affect you if you have closed the door behind you. Another question I thought of is what Jack intends to do once he reaches Sam. Apparently he plans to bring his son, who unlike Jack has no gear to be outside in an ice age, on a trek and walk for several days out of there. A third question that arose is why Sam and his friends in the library started to burn books. Sure they burn nice enough, but paper burn quickly. I would have started with wood, there must to be some wood furniture at a library. There are a lot others questions and loose ends in the plot. Altogether they result in that the movie never really got hold of me. It never really created any suspense. It never really tried to interact with its audience...
So, nice effects but too much holes in the plot... unfortunately, it was a good idea.
5/10