by JOANNE LATIMER

You are correct if you suspect The Snow Walker is Canadian. You're incorrect if you assume it's an arctic snore. The Snow Walker is an engrossing wilderness survival film that takes to heart its message about patience and perseverance. Just sit still and watch this film. You will be rewarded. You will even be treated to a few references to Moishe's steakhouse.

Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) is the lead of this film, which is based on a short story called Walk Well My Brother by Farley Mowat. As a swashbuckling bush pilot, Pepper's perfect. His cocksure attitude and swaggering womanizing make him ripe for a smack in the face, soon to be delivered by Mother Nature. Pepper's plane goes down, off course, in the Arctic. He just finished some trading with a small band of Inuit who give him ivory tusks to take their tubercular daughter to Yellowknife for medical treatment. He agrees, reluctantly. No sooner has Pepper shown his lack of respect for the Inuit and a racist indifference to the girl, Kanaalaq (newcomer Annabella Piugattuk), than his beloved Norseman airplane takes a dive. The pilot and his passenger are unhurt but without resources - save a crate of Coke and a few cans of Spam.

Pepper's character is A Stupid White Man kicking his broken plane, while Kanaalaq quietly makes a fire and catches a fish. He doesn't know how much he needs her. That changes, slowly, incident by incident. Director Charles Martin Smith lets Piugattuk bloom under long shots and near-wordless exchanges, as Pepper's pilot is humbled by her know-how and selflessness. Then the unthinkable happens: he sees her as a woman.

Were this a big-budget epic, there would be bear attacks, sweaty sex in the igloo and Annabella Piugattuk would be Anna Paquin. Smith directs with the restraint of someone who knows better than to upstage the arctic landscape with forced dramatic flourishes. The Snow Walker triumphs, padding off with your respect and, perhaps most surprisingly, your heart.

The Snow Walker opens Friday, March 19

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