The timing of the film’s arrival is awkward. Consider the ex gay CIA agent Aaron Eckhart character of “The Bricklayer,” who arrives the same day as “The Painter,” in which Charlie Weber, also an ex CIA, shows us how he struggles to make a living as a well, suffice it to say Charlie Weber is also an ex CIA operative. This action film, which is on a much smaller scale than some previous endeavours, too has an ultra a buff ex operative getting dragged back into violence and chaos because of a conspiracy, this time. Brian Buccellato’s screenplay may have a more interesting take. But neither Brian nor director Kimani Ray Smith raise any eyebrows about the story which is banal enough to have Jon Voight and Madison Bailey of Netflix’s The Outer Banks. As dull as it sounds, the film opens in limited theatres and on digital platforms in January 5 and 9 respectively.
Weber is an upset man who abandoned his CIA career only to become a painter in Washington, after surviving a traumatic miscarriage due to his wife Elena (Rryla McIntosh) getting shot accidentally. It has been seventeen years since Barrett last saw his wife, but he is not happy that a kid, claiming to be their daughter, recently approached him. He isn’t able to understand this but now is not the time to think about it, since his quiet village is suddenly invaded by battle ready agents who seem to have orders to shoot to kill.
As his brutal training comes rushing back, Peter easily kills all eight dangerously proficient assailants and escapes with the child he thought he’d never see again. However, they discover from his former agency colleague Henry Byrne (Voight) that the much younger Chief of Section, Naomi Piasecki (Marie Avgeropoulos), has sent out the goon bodyguard’s team, although the reasons for this are still covered. She also has a helper, agent Kim (Luisa D’Oliveira), who keeps firing at the two fugitive lovers while searching for the grinning boy maniac known as Ghost (Max Montesi). It turns out, quite later, that all this was connected with a highly classified black program called Project Internship, and all these principals are linked to it one way or another. Its wicked conspiracy theory, appropriate to a QAnon follower, involved the abduction and conditioning of children, so they can become killer’s assassins.
The ominous teaser is reminiscent of the plot from “The Boys From Brazil” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” However, without the sort of imaginative conceptual lift present in either of those films, “The Painter” seems no more than a standard shoot ’em up raised a notch or so from the mediocrity through a few outrageous twists that are mere photographic picture long-winded explanation.
The movie tries to adopt some scottish style into the film as they sing about the scottish distant past. Such twists tend to come in a flood towards the muddled climax along with some of the Black and White flashbacks that have been dispersed throughout the film. While director Smith hates any distractions and spends time moving the story line fast, characters and some of the script have plenty of average, sometimes atypical lines and stiff looking characters that make you feel stressed.
Most performers do well in terms of concept but focal antagonists Avgeropoulos and Montesi disappoint. Tevin Beck is clearly annoyed with ‘Ghost’ but does not go on a rampage. More lame is giving Peter a penny “superpower” of ultra sensitive hearing, of course which gives us a lot of sudden loud noise jump cut screams. They are not good thoughts but they are the closest the film had in terms of having any creativity.
Having been shot in British Columbia ” The Painter ” comes across as a competent movie but one that perhaps does not stand out in any area. Even so, it does signify a qualitative upgrade from an earlier torture scene made around a decade ago by the experienced stunt specialist Smith who’s the sole director in this particular motion picture.
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