The Christophers

The best thing about The Christophers may be the fact that it exists at all. At a time when any good news is welcome, Steven Soderbergh has reminded us that, yes, old-school artistry is still valued and viable. 

On its surface, this miniscule movie is about a famously difficult painter, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), and the young restorer, Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), attempting to exploit his dotage. But this is a Soderbergh joint, with a prickly script written by his frequent collaborator Ed Solomon (Mosaic). So clearly, there’s more to the story than the initial set-up, in which Julian is eking out his final years in resentful boredom until Lori shows up as his inspiring new assistant.

She’s actually a forger secretly hired by his children – a mischievous James Corden and a disappointingly underused Jessica Gunning – to finish a series of paintings inspired by a long-ago lover. Julian has hidden his half-done ‘Christopher’ canvases in the attic, so if Lori can sneak up there between tea fetching and brush cleaning, everyone stands to make a fortune when he dies. Well, everyone but Julian, who’s delighted to discover one last opportunity to beat others at their own game.

That’s all laid out early, so here’s the only twist you need to know: the cat-and-mouse structure is just a scaffold, for a series of erudite debates between two people with more in common than either realises.

 Here’s a reminder that, yes, old-school artistry is still valued 

Coel keeps us on edge by leaning into Lori’s unnatural poise; she has the self-assurance of a sociopath, yet seems to be the character with the strongest sense of ethics. This drives Julian to near-madness; he’s used to fawning deference, and responds to her impassivity with grand excess. He’s also outraged by her deception, while simultaneously elated to be intellectually engaged. That being the case, this is really McKellen’s show. He’s having such a fantastic time, and Soderbergh keeps the camera so tight, that the results are as thrillingly visceral as if we’re in a small theater watching him perform live.

Granted, not many filmmakers have the clout to both make and release an intellectual two-hander about the nature of art and accomplishment. And this is a movie that requires generosity even as it rewards patience.

But perhaps if more established auteurs were willing to make risky projects like this one, the folks who run Soderbergh’s increasingly inflexible industry would eventually take notice.

Which is to say, go see The Christophers. Show up, and support a tiny, talky experiment that has no relationship to IP or sequels or box-office projection. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s also never, as Lori grudgingly notes about Julian’s work, uninteresting. And in this cultural moment, that’s an authentic win.

In US theaters Fri Apr 10. In UK and Ireland cinemas May 15.