“The Christophers” shows Steven Soderbergh’s return with a low-key project that falls in the lane of his recent work. Whether it’s “Presence,” “Kimi,” or “Unsane,” they proved that he can churn out something compelling and worthwhile even with a small budget. We’re talking about the same filmmaker who once directed projects like the Ocean’s heist thrillers alongside “Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich.” Even his recent David Koepp collaboration, “Black Bag,” was a star-studded affair with a much higher budget. Yet, it showed him approaching the whole spy thriller genre beats far differently than how it’s usually handled. While being almost as cold or dry as “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” it was an oddly romantic film that maintained the stakes required for a spy thriller.
Soderbergh’s latest film, starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, offers a similarly understated rendition of its dramatic notes. Although introduced as a heist thriller, it shifts gears in the second act to become a low-key meditation on art in the modern world. It’s a delightful two-hander drama with black comedic undertones that benefits from McKellen and Coel’s wonderful chemistry and their refined craft, as their conversations lead us through the highs and lows of the art world.
Coel plays an artist, resigned from her artistic pursuits, finding herself standing in front of someone (McKellen), who once made her feel absolutely worthless in front of the world. So, it’s a battle of egos, as he deals with the growing pains of old age and fading relevance, whereas she fights for her right to express herself without being demotivated by someone who dismissed her talent. By the end, they influence each other in ways they may have never imagined before.
Spoilers Ahead
The Christophers (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What happens in ‘The Christophers’?
“The Christophers” revolves around two artists who meet years after they faced each other in a reality show. The title refers to a series of paintings that one of them had left incomplete for mysterious reasons, and the other one is tasked to forge them to be sold after his death. Neither of them seems to have a flourishing career at the time we meet them.
Lori Butler (Michaela Coel) makes a living by selling meals on a food cart. Although a practicing artist, she hasn’t exhibited her work in a long time. Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), a veteran in her field, is way past his glory years. He now lives in an underexposed, decrepit house and earns a living by selling cameos to his fans.
Although a bleak representation of their state of being, it feels like they have made peace with it. At least they both make it seem so. The facade cracks open when Lori is asked to forge a few paintings from Julian’s Christopher series by his children, Sallie (Jessica Gunning) and Barnaby (James Corden). Sallie had enrolled in the art school that Lori went to. So, she knows some details Lori had kept hidden. She doesn’t let Lori get a whiff of it. Instead, she and Barnaby propose that Lori forge their father’s paintings by calling it a restoration job. Lori refuses to be a part of it for ethical reasons, but Sallie persuades her, pushing her to see it as an act of vengeance.
Why does Lori agree to forge The Christophers?
Years ago, when Lori was 19 years old, she took part in a reality show called Art Fight, where Julian would share his opinions on works such as hers. She submitted a painting called Untitled no. 7, hoping he would find it interesting. Instead, he insulted her work and made her feel ashamed for even submitting it. At the time, his words held a lot of weight.
His snarky remarks were considered a valid critique of her work. In retrospect, it sounds like a failed stand-up comedian using his wit to take a jab at a young artist instead of offering insightful critique. He barely looked at her work and said nothing about its artistic flaws or merit. Instead, it’s simply him trying to get the biggest laugh.
For a 19-year-old, that must have been hard to recover from. That’s why, despite years of working on her craft, Lori didn’t exhibit her work. She also admired his work from a very young age, having seen it at an exhibition she entered as a pre-teen. His work influenced her so much that she became eager to impress him with hers. However, that dream was crushed when Julian publicly humiliated her. That’s why she agrees to forge his unfinished Christophers, probably seeing it as a karmic retribution for his egotism and arrogance.
After accepting Sallie and Barnaby’s offer, she shows up at Julian’s house, pretending to be his assistant. Julian doesn’t know that she is an artist, let alone the one he insulted on a TV show. Lori hides those details so she can find his unfinished paintings and forge them behind his back. She deceives him until he starts snooping into her personal life.
How does Julian’s personal life affect his creative work?
Julian came out as a bisexual man when he was still revered as an artist. The Christophers were actually a series of paintings he made of his lover or dedicated to him. After finishing the first two series of these paintings, he left the third unfinished and didn’t explain why. Whether literal or abstract, they seemingly represented what he felt at the time.
In the same vein, he considers personal life a crucial part of any artist’s work. It makes him curious about Lori’s personal life. She doesn’t entertain his invasive questions about her romantic life, which makes him even more curious. He doesn’t seem to care how his invasiveness comes across in their professional relationship as her employer.
Lori was well aware of the problematic details of his past and how his life informed his art. She also wrote scathing reviews about his work online, partially out of spite for his insensitive remarks in the past. Unbeknownst to her, he finds those reviews and probes into the unmistakable bitterness of her view of his work. He asks her about them, forcing her to confess to Sallie and Barnaby’s scam. Upon hearing that, he criticizes her as bitterly as she slammed his work. He forces her to question her artistic integrity and to reflect on her belief that she can replicate his work. Every word coming from him feels like daggers into her heart. She decides to leave, apologizing profusely for her mistake.
Yet, at the last minute, she walks back to speak about his work over the years, backed by actual insights into his personal life at the time he worked on those paintings, instead of irrelevant, snarky comments. It hurts his ego, which makes him want to insult her. He doesn’t respect any of her opinions, claiming she prepared the speech just to have that winning moment. That wasn’t the case. She knew his work closely and said things so pointed that he feared she knew exactly where his head was that time. It’s like watching an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The difference is: Lori seems to have a far deeper grasp than he had about his work.
The Christophers (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Do Sallie and Barnaby get the forged paintings from Lori?
Yes and no. Sallie and Barnaby get the previously unfinished series of Christophers from Lori, but they can’t authenticate those works. Neither of them knows whether Lori or Julian painted/finished them, and we don’t know if Lori tells them the truth either. They can’t ask their father because he lost his life shortly before this incident. Before his death, he and Lori reconciled their differences.
Until then, Lori had almost resigned from the idea of ever working with him. She had also planned not to help his children with the forgery, given her contentious relationship with him. They force her to get back to work, blackmailing her about a shady deal she made in the past. That’s when she realizes their desperation, learning that they have already sold the paintings to a businessman, who was going to use them as a charity purchase for a tax benefit.
Lori realizes how insulting Julian would find this deal. So, she tricks his children into believing that the original paintings have already been shredded, leaving them with no option to retrieve those. In reality, they were lying outside, waiting to be burned, as per Julian’s wishes. Lori refuses to burn them, forcing Julian to realize their worth to him.
He brings them back to his studio to finish them, but decides to do them badly on purpose, just to take a piss out of his ungrateful children. After initial hesitation, he starts working on them himself, only to realize that he can’t do them badly. No matter what he does, they look interesting, even if not pleasing. When Lori points out the same, he gets offended and insults her work and worth as an artist. That’s why she returns to her studio with a revised deal from Julian’s children for the forgery.
He realizes that the painting he claimed to have looked familiar is actually one that he had seen years ago: Untitled no. 7. Upon realizing how cruel he was, he shows up at her studio and apologizes for letting his self-loathing make her lose confidence in exhibiting her work. After this exchange, she agrees to join him the following week to work on his paintings. Before she can get the opportunity to do so, he dies.
What does Lori’s art installation convey about Julian’s career?
After Julian’s death, Lori forges a letter on his behalf, claiming the ownership of the paintings to his muse. It’s not clear whether she finished those paintings or Julian did, but his letter becomes legal proof for their ownership. Soon after, the muse, Owen Christopher Appleton (Ferdy Roberts), presents these paintings at an exhibition.
It makes Julian once again important in the art world. As people cherish his ‘rare’ work, Lori includes a modern art installation in the same exhibition under her name. It features several video clippings of Julian’s cameos in his twilight years. Although she doesn’t explain what it means, it seems like her way of commemorating him while offering an insight into his personal life, which he considered inseparable from his work.
What does Julian’s gifted painting mean to Lori?
While at the exhibition, Julian’s masseuse hands over a painting he had left for Lori. The background in that painting with a sky and a pillowy cloud looks similar to the background in Boy Under Cloud, a painting he worked on when he was merely six. While looking back at it during their last encounter, he criticized it, calling it ‘maudlin.’ It seemed like his way of hurting Lori, who had at least partially sentimental reasons for admiring it for many years. Around this time, they also discussed their views on who gets to judge his art. She wanted him to realize that his work isn’t simply his, but everyone else’s who sees or admires it.
So, the gifted painting might be his way of apologizing for taking away what his artwork (even if not as impressive by his standards) meant to her, while letting her have what looks like an unfinished self-portrait from him. He gave it to the person who was hired to finish his unfinished artworks, which reveals why he may have given it in this condition. On the other hand, it might just be that he couldn’t finish it before his death.
Going back to the subject of paintings left behind, the ambiguity about the auteur behind them leaves us to reflect on the value of art. The paintings gain respect as the rare and hitherto unseen works of a late artist. If that wasn’t the case, would they have been valued, let alone to the degree that they get valued in the end?
Even Lori’s modern art features Julian, which implies the enduring power of his name and reputation, regardless of merit. Whether he finished those paintings or not feels immaterial when they are praised specifically for being his ‘rare’ works. Of course, the film doesn’t make the subtext as black and white, but that seems to be by design. It expects us to reflect on the worth of art, revisiting every little detail we learn, even their grunts or gazes, to dig deeper than simply the answer to the mystery of the hand or heart that worked on those last paintings.
The Christophers (2025) Movie Themes Analyzed:
Art, Duplication, and Expression
The film explores the distinction between forgery and restoration based on the ethical measures or the lack thereof. It analyzes how art can serve as an extension to an artist’s interiority and can offer an unfiltered record of their expression — a way for them to communicate what they can’t otherwise. Even the type of brush strokes may reveal more about the artist’s emotional state when they created them.
Yet, the artist’s primary intention might be farther from the interpretation or emotional connection an admirer or a critic would have toward it. So, even a painting that he despises might be worth something to someone else. Instead of giving us clear-cut answers on these themes, Ed Solomon’s clever script leaves us admiring and unpeeling its layers, to go beyond the cliches of where life ends, and art begins.
