Title – The Christophers (2025)

Director – Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s 11)

Cast – Ian McKellan, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning, James Corden

Plot – The children of famous aging artist Julian Sklar (McKellan) hire professional forger Lori Butler (Coel) to finish off famed pieces of Sklar’s work in hopes they will be able to sell them off in the wake of his passing.  

“I’m a broken man, Lori. I believe I always have been”

Review by Eddie on 15/06/2026

Remaining consistently consistent when it comes to releasing product, especially since his “retirement”, boundary pushing filmmaker Steven Soderbergh arrives with another quickfire escapade in the form of art dramedy The Christophers, a fantastic showcase for the skillset that legendary screen performer Ian McKellan possesses but a chore in most other facets.

Using a word I don’t personally like to utilise when it comes to explaining films, Christophers commits the mortal cinematic sin of being a bit boring, with Soderbergh’s messaging and reasoning behind his newest outing hard to understand, in what amounts to a talk fest mostly set inside McKellan’s aging artist Julian Sklar’s home.

An intriguing sounding premise on paper, centred around Jessica Ganning and James Cordon’s siblings employing the services of rising star Michaela Coel’s artist/forger Lori Butler to complete some of their father’s incomplete works in hopes of selling them off when he passes, gives way to a film that’s hard to get excited about outside of McKellan’s meatiest role in years.

Doing a lot of heavy lifting in the film that feels like a stage play in waiting, McKellan is having a wickedly good time here bringing the cantankerous and deeply flawed Sklar to life but there’s only so much he can carry Soderbergh’s latest experimental feeling film, especially with an increasingly dull narrative and stony-faced support from Coel to assist him.

Alongside McKellan’s expressive and enthusiastic turn, poor Coel looks well out of place and out of her depth here, with blame likely to fall upon the feet of Soderbergh who clearly wanted the talented British performer to portray the charisma free Butler in a certain way, Coel’s turn amounts to a constant look of a stunned expression or traffic cone, merely there in place for McKellan to work around, halting Christophers dialogue laden runtime in its tracks rather than fly off the back and forward between the films two main figures.

Directional wise there’s little to write home about here, Soderbergh content to direct and capture everything without much fanfare, a shame considering his film about art and its power holds very little of the magic he speaks of in his chosen medium.

Sure to get some attention and perhaps extra marks from those who are taken in by McKellan’s performance, everywhere you look elsewhere Christophers lacks, making for an easy to forget and hard to love viewing experience that is a mostly dull exploration of an idea that could’ve been a gripping one.

Final Say –

A victim of Soderbergh’s lack of care and attention that often transpires due to the filmmakers jumping from project to project, The Christophers may feature a notable turn from a screen legend but otherwise this is a dull and boorish exercise devoid of any spirit or energy.

2 robes out of 5