Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Ed Solomon
Stars: Ian McKellen, Michaela Cole, James Corden
Synopsis: The children of a once famous artist (Ian McKellen) hire a forger (Michaela Coel) to complete some unfinished, long ago abandoned canvases so they’ll have an inheritance when he dies.
Let’s just get this right out at the very top of the review. Steven Soderbergh, perhaps both the most prolific and hardest working man in Hollywood, is three for three in 2025. Despite knowing how efficient of a filmmaker he is, it’s still such a baffling shock to see it realized in real time. Even more impressive is the range displayed across all three of his latest films. Each one captures such different tones in their own varied manners, but there nevertheless seems to be a through-line across all three of Soderbergh’s latest. Each film this year has ultimately returned to the necessity of the connections we keep in our lives. Connections, whether they be to a person, a place, or a thing, are as integral to maintaining a happy and healthy life as anything else. They are foundational building blocks of the human experience. In the case of The Christophers, all three of these examples are touched upon in ways both quite meaningful and effectively. Even when Soderbergh isn’t fully experimenting, instead crafting a perfectly structured drama, he serves up cinematic excellence. He makes it look so damn easy when we fully know it’s anything but.
Soderbergh’s knack for capturing some element of the human experience has varied greatly across his long career. But his penchant for working with excellent screenwriters has always remained steady. This is no different in the case of his latest, written by Ed Solomon. The script for this film is razor sharp with a distinct purpose. It’s all in service of protecting the very tender core at its center. Of course, this script could be sharp solely to have Sir Ian McKellen chew up scenery in a way that feels like it’s what movies were created for in the first place. But much like Julian Sklar’s (McKellen) venomous takedowns of everyone and everything around him, the present wit is just a shell to hide the pain that has tormented this artist for years upon years. Sklar was once beloved around the world, but by the time Soderbergh turns his camera towards him, he has become a bit of a recluse. Furthermore, he has abandoned the art world completely, spending his time in one of two connected London flats recording Cameo videos and Googling his own name. It’s a sad sight to see, but the more we hear his outlook on modern society, we begin to wonder if his hiding away is perhaps for the best. At least, that’s what Lori (Michaela Coel) seems to initially think.
Lori ending up in Julian’s home in the first place is the initial hook of The Christophers. Soderbergh, ever the fan of a good old fashioned grift, can’t help but have his films feel like they’re one scene away from becoming a full-blown heist film. His sleek visuals, coupled with often propulsive scores and an all-around coolness to them, only bolster this sentiment. But in this instance, the film actually does begin with a crime being planned. Julian’s children, played by Jessica Gunning and James Corden, come to Lori with a plan. With her skills as a restoration artist/expert forger, they propose she gains the trust of Julian in order to be granted access to his unfinished series of paintings from which this film claims its name. Upon her completing the paintings with the original equipment, they can wait out his death and reap the financial benefits that come with boosted interest in art after the artist has passed. If this all sounds quite morbid, it’s because it is. But the film never feels like such a weight is resting atop it. Instead, this almost has a jaunty quality to it. It’s often very funny, ranging from dry, clever wit to outrageously delivered line readings that feel perfectly calculated to elicit belly laughs. McKellen really is doing absolutely wonderful work here, but despite his consistent ability to have the audience chuckling, he can just as easily tug at our heartstrings.
One look at the inside of either of Julian’s flats tells us all we need to know about him. It’s quite the testament to the production design of this film. These are flats that do feel abundantly lived-in. Every inch of every surface is littered with a variety of items, whether they be junk or art or personal mementos. Who knows the last time he left this space. Is it purely out of comfort? Or is it perhaps out of fear? McKellen is practically in every scene of The Christophers, and he is talking for nearly all of his screentime. In his ramblings are kernels of truth that slip through which indicate what has brought him to this point in his life. Perhaps before the world started looking past him and his work, he decided it would be easier to just spew venom and fire at everything until he was left alone completely. At least he’d be able to turn around and say it was handled on his own terms. But Lori, despite her frustrations at his behavior, isn’t willing to let him throw the remainder of his life and career away that easily. Never entirely sure of where her motivations lie, Coel is an enigma that is desperately asking to be solved. Whereas McKellen is playing this character as open-faced as can be, or at least, so we think, Coel plays everything incredibly close to the chest. The film makes great use of this comical dynamic until it decides the drama fueling it is far more interesting. And when Solomon and Soderbergh decide to flip that switch, The Christophers goes from being a very good film to an effectively moving one.
The Christophers, at its core, is a film about people. All this time Julian has remained in a quasi self-imposed exile of sorts, he has remained fundamentally alone. He loathes his children, and speaks of frequent altercations with local businesses. He’s an artist who is pained from the work that once brought everything about him to life. He sees his life’s work becoming a tax write-off for tech bros. He has lost his purpose as an artist, and it seems like the reason for this was due to losing his connections with the people around him. As Julian picks Lori apart further and further, and she’s more than happy to reciprocate when it comes to judging his later works, they form a bond that’s so charming and full of potential. In each other, their passion for creating art and expressing themselves through it might be reinvigorated. Perhaps the relationship might lead to more pain down the road. But those worries and that potential is what fuels the human experience to feel deeply and create something truly beautiful. The kindness on display is this film is deeply moving, and once the hard shell hiding it is stripped away, we can see the fundamental beauty at its core. It’s what allows this film to soar beyond most traditional dramas. Soderbergh makes it look easy, but he and Solomon are aware life is anything but. The Christophers just takes that difficulty and channels it into something pure.
The Christophers is celebrating its world premiere in the Special Presentations category of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
