The Christophers <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/>

The Christophers

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.

As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college.

The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyline suffers because of these highs. There's not enough at stake to complement the central peak.

In saying this, I can see that Solomon has attempted to construct a twisty, clever plot. It's just that the payoffs don't land and it actually gets a bit confusing at times. Lori (Michaela Coel) is so inscrutable as to be almost wooden, she doesn't seem interested in anything going on in the film. There's little to no tension and it's hard to warm to anyone on screen, even McKellen.

Look, I suppose it's a pretty fair exploration of the lack of depth in the art world but I couldn't quite see what Soderbergh was after. It seemed the only characters who had any motivation were Sklar's offspring, played by Jessica Gunning and James Corden. I didn't really buy the arcs of the two leads. Admittedly, the old London house was a fantastic location but if that's the second best thing in the film (after McKellen), then maybe that's all you need to know.

A side note that might have gone some way to explaining my mild disdain for this film: Soderbergh had made many well known films (The Oceans trilogy; Magic Mike; Sex, Lies and Videotape; Traffic), some good ones (Out of Sight; Contagion; Erin Brockovich), but never a great one. Discuss.

The Christophers opens at the Luna and Palace in Perth on June 4th (the Luna has special Afternoon Tea screenings at Leederville, Windsor and SX Freo on Sunday May 31st at 3:30pm)

See also:

A better art/crime film is Giuseppe Capotondi's The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019) and for a more malicious turn from McKellen, have a look at Anand Tucker's The Critic (2023).

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