Richard Evans had made us wait long enough.

Although he didn’t do it with the purposeful intent of George Lucas with his “Star Wars” films — which take three years to make each come hell or high water — Evans still had South Whidbey moviegoers asking for the last three years “So, when will the move will be done?”

Last month, a cast premiere of Evans’ film “Harry Monument” at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts finally let the other shoe drop. Having filmed most of the scenes three years ago with an all-local cast of, well, dozens, Evans has been carefully editing “Monument” while the rest of us — many of whom appear in the film or in footage that hit the cutting room floor — have been wondering how the pieces fit together.

This week, everybody will find out.

“Harry Monument” is a move that comes out of the past — the noir film tradition — but that also exaggerates that past with unusual perspective, humor and a bit of campiness.

First off, it needs to be pointed out that the biggest thrill in watching “Monument” in its WICA premier this week will be trying to pick out friends in the scenes. It’s not going to be as easy as some might think. In writing, directing and editing this film, Richard Evans does a great job of pushing well-known locals out of their personalities and into unfamiliar roles. OK, it will be obvious to anybody that it is Jim Freeman playing the pushy, out-of-control Chinese film director in an early scene and that two rabbis showing up in another scene are Jack Eskanazi and Harlan Mason, others will surprise. But just try to pick out other locals, like Nancy White as a hooker in a seedy bar, Frazer Mann as a rescue diver, and Beno Kennedy as a homicidal sociopath.

For those who love noir film, “Monument” sums up the whole genre while at the same time maintaining an inside joke for more than two hours of screen time. The film starts out with Keno Argyle, played by Dave Draper, working in the role of the seediest, most unappreciated and underemployed private detective in the history of film. On the track of the man who killed his partner, Harry Monument (as far as he knows), Argyle is hampered by a bad cop (Ken Churchill), a baby-talking femme fatal (Shannon Connell), and physically and psychologically tortured throughout by deeply disturbed characters played by Beno Kennedy, Michael McVay, Jim Scullin and Halim Dunsky.

In weaving his story, “Monument” creator Evans keeps his audience thoroughly off balance, as he did in the film’s stage predecessor “Crimes X2.” There is no predicting where the story is going at any time, much like life. While this can be disorienting to the filmgoer who likes some predictability, for those who can go along for the ride, each scene is something brand new.

Easy to appreciate in this film is Evans’ ability to find a new angle on old scenes and an old theme. There’s nothing new about the characters, nor about individual sections of the story. “Monument,” at its basic foundations, is an old-style gumshoe film that works at the underbelly of society. But the film’s unpredictability in addition to wild scene lighting and unconventional camera angles keeps even the tired detective story theme interesting.

All of it taken together, however, puts “Monument” in its own category. Cross the big studio films “Momento” and “Roger Rabbit” with “Columbo” and you’ve got “Harry Monument” (minus the cartoon characters). This is to say that “Harry Monument” is an unpredictable film that, in its entirety, is a new movie experience.

There are a couple of gripes to made, however. In its screening form in September, “Monument” was weighed down by a number of overly ponderous scenes that, if shortened, would’ve kept the audience more into the film. Undoubtedly some of that has been corrected, as Evans was not entirely happy with the edit and had vowed to take the film back into the editing room.

The other trouble with “Harry” is how it holds its at arm’s length from its characters. While it may have been Evans’ intention to give the story a comic book feeling, an audience needs an emotional connection with at least one character in a film. The one-dimensional characters in “Monument” do their job, such as it is, but do not elicit any kind of connection from the audience. This makes it a little difficult to care about what happens to any one of them by the film’s conclusion.

Still, “Harry Monument” is a work of art worth watching, both for the twists it puts into the old private dick story and for the opportunity to see friends and neighbors on the big screen. It is the culmination of a lot of hard, considered work by many people and is solid entertainment.