The Painter, 2023.
Directed by Kimani Ray Smith.
Starring Charlie Weber, Madison Bailey, Jon Voight, Marie Avgeropoulos, Max Montesi, Rryla McIntosh, Luisa d’Oliveira, Leah Gibson, Jason Gray-Stanford, Simon Tattersall, and Benjamin Jacobson.
SYNOPSIS:
An ex-CIA operative is thrown back into a dangerous world when a mysterious woman from his past resurfaces. Now exposed and targeted by a relentless killer and a rogue black ops program, he must rely on skills he thought he left behind.
As one character puts it, “the painter” is also a painter. That’s the level of creativity (a term used loosely) in director Kimani Ray Smith’s The Painter (from a script by Brian Buccellato), a film telling the story of a CIA couple expecting their first child who find themselves going their separate ways after tragedy strikes when it turns out they are working the same case from different angles. The near-due date baby is shot in the crossfire and does not survive childbirth, and the situation drives an unrepairable rift between the lovers, with Peter Barrett (Charlie Weber) resigning from the service and applying himself to actual painting more over the next 17 years as a hobby.
Peter’s handler throughout all of this was his nonblood-related father figure, Byrne, played by none other than Jon Voight, in a casting decision that practically feels designed to come clean the viewers upfront that the unfolding story will be as generic as they come with the expected betrayals. Byrne raised Peter after his family was killed in an incident by, and this is a direct quote, terrorists (no further information on that whatsoever), slowly turning him into a sharply trained killer at a young age by leveraging his damaged ears and sensitive hearing into an advantageous combat resource.
It also turns out that some CIA agents in powerful places have started an entire program attempting to replicate that success, this time by using forced blindness. One such candidate was a young boy reshaped into Ghost (Max Montesi), a mildly charismatic and sadistic assassin trotting around in headphones listening to music while he gets to his deadly work. Naturally, he has been dispatched to take out Peter, with the CIA convinced he is in possession of highly classified materials.
Meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl named Elena (Rryla McIntosh) shows up by Peter unannounced, claiming that Sophia (Madison Bailey) is her mother and that she was sent to find her father for protection. Thus ensues several action sequences involving gun-fu in close quarters combat, where only the latter manages to occasionally leave a brutal impression. The gunplay is often ruined by excessive cutting. Charlie Weber is also bland in the role and, without much to do, struggles to make the violence really pop and come alive.
There also isn’t much of an attempt to develop an emotional bond between this father and daughter, finally meeting under mysterious circumstances despite the parents told for 17 years that she died during childbirth. However, the real missed opportunity is that The Painter has no idea what to do with its central action concept of the visual and hearing impaired using those traits to their advantage in combat; it’s empty characterization more than anything in a film that is already absurdly convoluted and stuffed with unnecessary exposition and flashbacks.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
