TORONTO – It’s been a decade since the one and only Ian McKellen was given a role in a quality production he could really sink his teeth into. And despite appearing next year in a highly anticipated blockbuster, alongside a massive cast, mind you, these opportunities may be increasingly few and far between for the 86-year-old actor moving forward. Propitiously, McKellen has been given a wonderful late-career gift in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” a role that allows him to deliver one of his best performances in years.
Arguably, the best screenplay Ed Solomon has ever written, “The Christophers,” begins with a proposition. Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), a one-time artist and now struggling art restorer, is approached by her former college classmate, Salli Sklar (Jessica Gunning), and Salli’s brother, Barnaby (James Corden). The siblings’ father, Julian Sklar (McKellen), just happened to be one of the most acclaimed British artists of the past half-century. As he nears his final days, the duo, who have a strained relationship with their father, are obsessed with obtaining a series of unfinished works Julian has stashed somewhere in his London home. Part of a series of acclaimed paintings known as The Christophers, Julian has refused to let them be seen, let alone consider selling them, despite countless inquiries. With almost all of Julian’s previous work in the hands of collectors, his kids see these unseen compositions as their only shot at a real financial inheritance once he passes (although to be fair, his townhouses do look like they would sell for a pretty penny).
For Salli, Lori is an ideal candidate to infiltrate Julian’s home. She has witnessed Lori’s talent for recreating the style of some of the most singular artistic minds firsthand, including some pieces inspired by her father while they were in art school. Posing as his new assistant, Lori could find the paintings and either finish them or recreate them in some manner so they could be sold after Julian dies. Not averse to the financial payoff, Lori agrees, but neither Salli nor Baranaby is aware of her previous run-in with Julian years before.
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When Lori shows up for work, Julian is almost immediately suspicious and surprises her by immediately instructing her to shred the paintings, which have been in a tub on the third floor since the ’90s. As the days pass, he changes his mind numerous times, clearly sentimentally attached to the works despite his insistence that’s not the case. However, the 30-year-old works are of a former lover. Someone he fell deeply in love with when he came out as bisexual late in life. The more Lori spends time with him, the more complicated his feelings about the work become.
Essentially a two-hander, both characters are goldmines for McKellen and Coel. Julian went from being a “progressive” artist to destroying his reputation on a reality-like television program to being “canceled” before the pandemic (although we never learn why). Lori has her own demons, but has to juggle the respect for Sklar she once had with the promise of a life-changing financial windfall. Moreover, if not for viewing an exhibition of his work as a child, she believes she never would have wanted to become an artist. He’s been an essential part of her life, whether she’s wanted to admit it or not.
Solomon assists by tossing McKellen a ton of sharp one-liners, which he throws out like firecrackers, while Coel’s steely portrayal often deftly returns the sparks back at him. Their chemistry is fantastic, but McKellen crafts something genuinely compassionate with Julian that’s hard to ignore. This artist is clearly an a**hole, but a smart one at that. And despite his inherent misogyny and Boomer worldview, McKellen somehow has you rooting for him when it matters most—an absolutely superb performance from a legendary actor in his twilight years. And trust, these happen less often than you think. No one should sleep on just how good McKellen is here.
An actor’s director, the prolific Soderbergh, gives both McKellen and Coel a ton of much-needed breathing room. But if the movie has any serious flaw, it’s how inherently claustrophobic it becomes as the narrative unfolds. So much of the story is conversations that take place in small rooms in Julian’s townhouses. Despite the ensemble’s overall talents, it’s a godsend whenever the proceedings move somewhere else.
Soloman and Soderbegh thread the story with themes that touch on artistic legacy and the morality of forging other artists’ works, but the heart of “The Christophers” is the tale of a man who has to find some sense of closure over the greatest love affair of his life. Whether Lori will assist him in this endeavor or scam someone who, well, might actually deserve it is deftly teased throughout the movie’s 100-minute runtime. Overall, Soderbergh and Solomon have fashioned a very good film that lets its actors bask in the figurative spotlight. That is, of course, they take a minute to step outside Julian’s townhouse to find it. [B]
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