
The day which began with the release of “The Bricklayer” and movie star Aaron Eckhart at least makes sense as he plays an ex-CIA operative with such a dayjob, “The Painter” has Charlie Weber as ex-CIA agent who has taken up concerns which we can solve. This on a more modestly scaled action picture also has its share of its ultra-tough former operative that is quite reluctantly brought back to the fold because of yet again the unfriendly ringing of gun fire. Peter Barrett is the fictitious name of an ex-CIA operative in the film, who turned his back on spying to become a quiet painter in the Pacific Northwest after his spouse Elena (performed Rryla McIntosh) abandoned him after her slipping over a clumsy mishap shot which led to the loss of pregnancy. 17 years later Barrett lives under a false name but is obviously not pleased at the fact that teenage Sophia (acting by Madison Bailey) has come to him with the story that she is their biological child.
This is incomprehensible to him but thinking it through is the last thing that he is afforded the luxury of doing, for his isolated house is suddenly flooded with gunmen who clearly have orders to shoot to kill.
Instinctively, Peter incorporates the combat tactics he learned during his lethal training to eliminate all eight deadly intruders, and subsequently escapes with his so-called son. While hiding Peter from his old colleague, now a mentor Henry Byrne (Voight) the two discover that the so-called goons were presumably deployed by an ambitious teenage Section Chief, Piasecki (Marie Avgeropoulos) who does not show up her motives for now. Alongside Aquino, there is also Kim (Luisa D’Oliveira) who has the complete opposite agenda. As a result, while the two are being pursued by documentary filmmakers, the prisoners also have a young murderous maniac named “Ghost” (Max Montesi) on their tail.
It is finally revealed, however, that all this began with agents locked in some top secret black ops called Project Internship and all the principles that are in all ways interlinked. The conspiracy involves a plot involving QAnon where master assassins are abducted and raised from children to be robots.
That hook resonates with what Echo says it’s like out of The Boys From Brazil or The Manchurian Candidate. Without those movies’ imaginative conceptual lift, however, Moving On, The Painter never appears to be anything above a kinetic performance, a mindless shoot-‘em-up, dressed up in gory shock revelations which turn out to be nothing more than explained ones.
Such twists come pouring in towards a drawn-out resolution, along with more B&W flashbacks that have punctuated the earlier parts of the movie. Though director Smith does manage to keep things moving at a fair pace, there is no particular artistic signature to a plotting that is bereft of any narrative absurdities, silly dialogue, or ordinary stereotypical characters.
While most performers make do under the material’s restrictions, chief villains Avgeropoulos and Montesi are dismally disappointing. It doesn’t bode well for the movie when its idea of scary behavior is having A ghost listen to techno music while wearing headphones. Worse, giving Peter a hodgepodge superpower of a loud sound and too much sensitivity was poor thinking making subjects nearly unbearable with cheap jump scares that are used way too often. These aren’t good ideas, but they are the closest the film has to anything original.
Mostly shot in British Columbia, The Painter, when placed alongside its American contemporaries is rather unexceptional in terms of design or tech.
However, it is a considerable improvement compared to Smith’s last solo directorial effort from 10 years ago, the cannibal action comedy “Evil Feed,” which was made by veteran stunt coordinator Smith.
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