DIRECTOR
Steven Soderbergh
Black Bag, The Ocean’s Trilogy (Eleven – Thirteen), Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Out of Sight, Magic Mike, Side Effects, Contagion, Logan Lucky, Sex Lies and Videotape

STARS
Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning and James Corden


Oscar ® winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh adds another fine work of art to his lengthy and impressive catalogue courtesy of The Christophers without it being one of his absolute finest pieces, yet it is a movie that is certainly very accessible and might just be better suited to being a stage production.

Lori (Mother Mary’s Michaela Coel), an artist who sketches for leisure and specialises in art restoration is working in a London food truck to make ends meet when she receives an unexpected phone call from a former classmate who has a proposition for Lori that could change her career and even her life. Sallie (The Magic Faraway Tree’s Jessica Gunning) and her brother Barnaby (James Corden) have lost patience waiting for their father, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), a once acclaimed but now inconsequential painter, to complete an unfinished third series of paintings known as ‘The Christophers’. Knowing the completion of the series will still be worth a significant amount, they request Lori to secretly finish them while she occupies an assistant role at Julian’s residence.

The appealing premise releases several engaging developments and plot twists all throughout that ensure The Christophers is always worthwhile, even though the majority of its scenes do involve only our two central characters and take place inside Julian’s home, which exhibit a couple of the small handful of reasons this film is seamlessly transferable to the stage.

Ian McKellen’s Julian is a rambling, ridiculing and sarcastic old fella that knows he’s had his day but is a wily and underestimated character who refuses to completely let go of his artistic livelihood. One could liken him to being the painter equivalent of Simon Cowell perhaps. Underneath that exterior though is something more sentimental that explains why ‘The Christophers’ remains unfinished and reveals how Lori could be just the right person to help in ways neither he or she could have expected. It must be acknowledged again the movie develops these proceedings in a very engaging way, although I would have liked for it to have involved Sallie and Barnaby more heavily than it does.

The acting performances surprisingly didn’t earn as much appreciation from me as the storytelling and plot trajectory did. Michaela Coel, whom I found transfixing in Mother Mary seen just a couple of weeks ago, is somewhat monotonous here and delivers too much of her dialogue in robotic-like fashion. Sir Ian McKellen exudes commanding screen presence but is very theatrical in style. Though neither performance is ever off-putting by any means, they also do not elevate this lighter dark comedy as they easily could have.

The Christophers is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from June 4th, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks Roadshow Films for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

LIKE on Facebook – @moviedoc13 / Follow on Instagram – moviedoc_melbourne

©