Steven Soderbergh’s dark, witty comedy, “The Christophers,” playing at the M.V. Film Center starting on May 8, is a delight. Ian McKellen, at the top of his game, brings his great acting chops to Julian Sklar, an irreverent, bohemian artist past his prime. Michaela Coel counters Julian’s eccentricities with her nuanced performance as Lori Butler, Julian’s unflappable assistant.
The story’s premise centers on Julian’s estranged, money-grabbing adult children, Barnaby (James Corden) and Sallie (Jessica Gunning), who want to hire Lori to complete their father’s long-ago abandoned, unfinished canvases — the “Christophers.” After his death, they plan to sell the eight “newly discovered paintings” he supposedly created at the height of his career for a fortune.
Lori, an artist who works as a restorer, initially resists. The children protest, first noting that their father had his assistants complete his work all the time. (In fact, the practice has art-historical precedent, as the great Renaissance masters had their apprentices paint the backgrounds and minor figures in their works.) But Lori protests, “You said it’s a restoration job … It’s a forgery job.” Barney jumps in, “No, no. God no. All we’re trying to get you to do is complete them … Really, Lori, does it even matter?” She only changes her mind when the siblings point out that an early work by their father just sold for more than $3 million, and they agree to give Lori a large share of the profits from the sale of the forgeries.
What the siblings don’t know is that, at age 12, Lori first pursued art after seeing a painting by Julian. But as a 19-year-old art student, she appeared on a popular television show where Julian, with a flippant air, pronounced on whether contestants’ art was worthy. In a flashback, we see him cruelly dismiss Lori’s painting as rubbish.
Julian doesn’t recognize Lori when she interviews for the assistant position to help catalog his work. His initial interrogation sets his character in motion. In a nonstop soliloquy, bordering on the edge of insanity, he warns Lori that if she is either an admirer or an artist herself, he doesn’t want to know. Then he rambles off non sequiturs: “I’ve done nothing important in 30 years; nothing at all for 20. I was bisexual when it actually meant something. Are you any good with humidifiers?”
After Lori easily assembles his new humidifier, Julian agrees to have her as his assistant. But having deduced his children’s mercenary scheme, he warns, “Don’t talk to me about [the ‘Christophers’]. They’re a train wreck.”
The plot twists and turns as Lori continually switches allegiance between the children and Julian, especially as the pair’s complicated relationship deepens. McKellen deftly conveys Julian’s fascinatingly complex character, boomeranging between moments of madness, cutting cruelty, and pathos.
Ultimately, in addition to being a really good yarn, “The Christophers” is an interesting meditation on aging, the fickleness of fame, and the monetization of the art world.
“The Christophers,” playing at the M.V. Film Center starting May 8. For information and tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com.