Susan Sarandon to the rescue

A compelling book has become a less compelling, though interesting, TV bio-pic. The difference in dynamics is reflected in their respective titles.

The book: “Ice Bound, A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole.” The CBS movie: “Ice Bound: A Woman’s Survival at the South Pole” (9 p.m. Sunday).

This true story is nothing if not dramatic. In 1999, physician Jerri Nielsen was stranded for months at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica after she discovered a lump in her breast that turned out to be cancerous.

With temperatures that can plunge 100 degrees below zero, winter weather conditions in this remote environment are such that the Air National Guard could undertake a still-risky rescue only after Nielsen had performed her own biopsy and, with the help of co-workers, had undergone chemotherapy treatments. She consulted with her cancer doctors via e-mail.

Yet scriptwriters Peter Pruce and Maria Nation go for the formulaic. All the characters but Nielsen and “best friend” Big John (sympathetic Aidan Devine) seem peripheral, and a few key scenes that crackled with energy in the book would flat-line if not for Susan Sarandon’s wrenchingly honest performance in the lead role.

Director Roger Spottiswoode’s visual choices, however, give viewers a sense of the vulnerability and hardiness of those who live and work in an unforgiving world of ice.

And in Sarandon’s face, Spottiswoode captures some of what the script doesn’t resonantly define -- Nielsen’s adjustment to life and colleagues at the South Pole and the personal issues that both shaped and returned to haunt her as she unexpectedly found herself fighting for her life.