Paint

Through the past several decades, we've seen many biopics grace the movie screen to receive certain insights of the lives of actors, politicians, business tycoons, presidents, heads of state, sports figures, musicians--the list is endless. So now we have a film based on an inspiration of the artist, Bob Ross in "Paint".

In this story, Owen Wilson portrays Carl Nargle, Vermont's #1 public television painter who is convinced he has it all: a signature perm, custom van, and fans hanging on his every stroke...until a younger, better artist, Ambrosia Long (Ciara Renee) steals everything (and everyone) Carl loves. Carl's station manager/friend, Tony Krut (Stephen Root) attempts to placate the two artists while the producer, Katherine (Michaela Watkins) is busy trying to get a promotion from another of the public station's offices elsewhere, that all hell breaks loose with Carl and others. 

Others to round out the cast are Wendi McLendon-Covey as Wendy, Lusia Strus as Beverly, Lucy Freyer as Jenna, Denny Dillon as PBS host, Rob Figueroa as Donald Moore, Elizabeth Henry as Bridget and Paul Kosopod as Bridget's best friend. 

This was directed with an amazing underlying intensity that slowly the audience can see when it comes to Carl's upside down world by Brit McAdams ("Triviatown" '06) plus TV and a short. This filmmaker truly had the ability to extract emotions of Carl from his actor, Wilson in order to see, slowly and gradually, but how intense Carl could become when his world doesn't go as he planned. This takes a lot of restraint when it comes to directing. It was also written as well by Brit McAdams (TV, a short and a video). Although this is a fictionalized inspired script about the famed painter, Bob Ross, I can't help but wonder why this writer did not choose to pen an actual biopic on Ross. Certainly Ross had enough fodder in his life to write an intriguing screenplay on his life. I'm not sure why--maybe McAdams couldn't get the rights from the Ross estate in order to actually write about the actual artist. Everything that embodied Ross's look (the huge perm, the pipe, the fashion), demeanor (his distinct soft-spoken voice), Owen Wilson had it down cold. This character of Carl was actually a depressing person--basically a womanizer, and definitely touted himself as not very humble. So as I'm watching this, because Carl looks and embodies that soft-spoken character, it almost forces me to think that Ross was like this Carl, even though I know he's not. It's an interesting slant on otherwise would be considered a biopic, I'm not sure if this was successful in driving home that aspect.  

One might like this, or maybe not if they liked Bob Ross, since this looks and sounds like Ross. But Carl's demeanor is most likely a far cry from that of Ross, so if you plan on seeing this, beware, this is definitely not a biopic. Carl may look and sound the part, he may work in a public TV station teaching art, but this doesn't a biopic make. 

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                         Rated: PG-13                                       96mins.