Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, James Corden, Jessica Gunning
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 100 mins

The Christophers is a black comedy by Steven Soderbergh about a young artist, Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who’s hired to pose as an ageing well-known painter’s assistant. Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) is the painter in question, whose artistic career is in a slump. Lori is hired to complete the third series of his unfinished most famous work ‘The Christophers’ so they can sell for a fortune after his death. She’s been hired by Julian’s unscrupulous and greedy children Barnaby (James Corden) and Sallie (Jessica Gunning), but Lori quickly learns that Julian is much sharper than he first lets on. Soderbergh is one of the most versatile directors working today, and while the caper elements of this film are well within his sandbox, the fact The Christophers is a film about art sets this apart from his other work.

This is a very solid effort from Soderbergh, with some excellent performances and an impressively sharp script by Ed Solomon full of dry wit. As you’d expect, Ian McKellen is reliably brilliant as the cantankerous, but self-reflective painter, and Michaela Coel is more than his match as the equally sharp-witted Lori. They share a palpable chemistry together and both get to deliver some ripe lines, with the tables constantly turning between them in who has the upper hand. Jessica Gunning and James Corden are also deliciously fun as the unlikeable children who are trying to benefit off their father’s wealth. Bar a 10-minute section at the mid-point that feels a little unfocussed, it’s yet another tightly-paced piece from Soderbergh that’s delicate and unshowy. There’s a great score by David Holmes too, and it’s crisply shot by Soderbergh (playfully under his Mary Ann Bernard pseudonym).

Soderbergh is on a hot streak at the moment, with both Presence and Black Bag last year very satisfying too. I don’t think The Christophers is quite as strong as either of those films, but this is a very entertaining watch that ranks well in the filmmaker’s back catalogue, with a surprising depth of what is and isn’t revealed about its two central characters.