The Christophers

Octogenarian artist Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) lives alone in London. In the 1990s he painted two portrait series of his male lover, Christopher. Since then, Sklar’s fame has diminished, and a third series of the ‘Christophers’ remains unfinished. The artist’s adult children hire Lori Butler (Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You), a talented art restorer, as Sklar’s personal assistant. Her covert mission? To complete the ‘Christophers’, so Sklar’s children can sell them for millions after he dies. Director Steven Soderberg (Sex, Lies and Videotape; Erin Brockovich) allows the tension between Sklar and Butler to build as the artist divines her true intentions. ‘McKellen is voluble, needling, vulnerable and pathetic; Coel is calm and withholding… (Their) double act has the onscreen chemistry of the year.’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian—five stars.