The Painted City is billed as a neo-noir mystery, directed by Christopher Sakr out of Portland, Oregon. Let's begin this review with a look at the official synopsis.. A neo-noir following Millhouse, a young cafe-dweller who is shocked out of monotony after witnessing a murder/suicide. When the identities of the two men resurrect spirits from his past, he is propelled into the derailed mythology of the enigmatic force behind it all. Still with us?

The movie is equally cryptic, and usually I wouldn't mind cryptic if there a well-paced, well-acted story to move things along. This film, despite many notable qualities, didn't really have either. It kills me to say this because the cinematography is terrific, the production design is amazing and movie is polished and professional overall. The story is slow but not too bad. The bad news is The Painted City suffers from one of the worst sins of filmmaking - poorly directed performances. It feels like there was either no rehearsal time or far too much, allowing the actors to engrain a certain delivery rather than living out the moments as they happen. This film has numerous examples of Acting with a capital A, much of it due to dialogue that needed a lot more revision. Every 'uh', every pause for breath.. it all sounds like the director specifically requested it be there. In a word, unnatural. It tears the viewer from the moment and I found myself not wrapped in the visual storyline, but rather looking at my theater screen, trying my best to get past the distraction. Each scene seems to shift suddenly in mood and tone between the actors.. early in the movie the main character is speaking with a detective.. within sixty seconds they go from polite introductions to off topic banter about Millhouse carrying a cigarette to him acting very abrasive about tv preparing him for witnessing a murder/suicide. Polite/friendly/lightly defensive/annoyed/offended.. all within a minute. The dialogue from the detective was equally odd, one second he's polite and understanding of the horror that Millhouse has witnessed, the next he's openly insulting his profession and his choice of wording. I mean literally within three or four lines of dialogue! If people talked this way in Portland I'd make a point to never go. (Of course I know many people in Portland, and they're all wonderful folks!)

The film not only has iffy dialogue, but it has lots of it. The voice-overs are a bit better than the on-screen acting as Millhouse seems to aimlessly wander from place to place trying to get a handle on things. Things develop as he learns of a cult that is behind the events he's witnessed. If you want to dive into it's hefty two hour runtime, I won't spoil anything for you. I will say that my comments about the acting is not universal to all of the performers.. Genevieve Lee Howell is good as the girl from Millhouse's past, and cult leader Carl Steadman is adequately played by Anthony Redelsperger, perhaps because it's hard to overact a nutcase.

Christopher Sakr is clearly a technically-minded director. The composition of his movie, the look and feel of all of it, is executed flawlessly. But it seems he may not be an actor's director, as a viewer I found very few believable moments in this 120 minute story. Out of ten, TPC scores about a seven.