Tag: ian-mckellen

The Christophers (2025)

  • Director: Steven Soderbergh
  • Screenplay: Ed Solomon
  • Cast: Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, James Corden, Jessica Gunning
  • Cinematography: Peter Andrews
  • Editing: Mary Ann Bernard
  • Score: David Holmes
  • Genre: Black comedy-drama
  • Runtime: 100 minutes

In ‘The Christophers‘, Ian McKellen gets material worth his time and energy. He plays Julian Sklar, a washed up once acclaimed artist. The pinnacle of his career well and truly over, he’s reduced to making a quick buck by filming Cameo videos for fans. These days, he’s better known for savaging up-and-coming artists on the reality television show ‘Art Fight’ than he is for his paintings.

Sklar’s unfinished collection ‘The Christophers’, portraits of a former lover, still attract attention. His estranged offspring (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) hover around like flies on a not yet dead animal. They know their father will leave them zilch in his will once he pops his clogs. The pair enlist a forger, Lori (Michaela Coel), to complete the last series of ‘Christophers’ – currently stashed away in the attic – to secure a hefty profit. Julian won’t even notice, he’s eccentric and his residence is cluttered with junk.

This is McKellen’s finest hour. His performance is itself similar to a painting; layer upon layer of emotion. There’s gold flecks of witty acerbicness on the surface. Then a thick coat of red hot contempt but as we go deeper, we find rich shades of deep blue sorrow. Ed Solomon’s superb script paints a picture of one man and his legacy torn asunder. Together with Steven Soderbergh’s direction, this gallery of thoughts on mortality and one’s oeuvre escapes its frame and becomes something entirely three-dimensional.

McKellen does most of the talking in this two-hander, rambling on at length. I could listen to him do so for hours. But it takes an equally adept actor to be able express just as much feeling whilst staying silent. Coel doesn’t need to say a word for us to read her mind in the moment – she stands toe-to-toe with her onscreen partner.

A work of art indeed.

My rating: 8 / 10

The Critic (2023)

  • Director: Anand Tucker
  • Screenplay: Patrick Marber
  • Cast: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Lesley Manville
  • Cinematography: David Higgs
  • Editing: Beverley Mills
  • Score: Craig Armstrong
  • Genre: Period thriller
  • Runtime: 101 minutes

Seeing a film called ‘The Critic‘ then writing a critique of it afterwards felt very appropriate. Who dares to criticise the critic? Well, I’m sure the people who created this yawnfest won’t appreciate my opinions in any shape or form.

Ian McKellen is Jimmy Erskine, a theatre critic with an acid tongue and a poison pen. Through his harsh but honest reviews, he wields power over the actors of London’s theatres. Erskine is waspish and tart, McKellen does this so well it’s as if he’s not even acting – he gets to deliver a few Oscar Wilde-esques lines.

What follows is a major disappointment – not the film I was expecting at all. Billed as a thriller, it’s more of a romantic drama with a hint of threat. Erskine is fired because of cost-cutting measures at the newspaper he’s the resident entertainment critic of, along with the rest of the old guard. Thus, he plots his revenge against newspaper editor David Brooke (Mark Strong), using actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton) as a pawn in his game. But about a third of the way through, McKellen is no longer the focus – the love triangle between David, Nina and David’s son-in-law (Ben Barnes) takes centre stage. By not focusing on its main asset, I lost interest quickly. They could have made Erskine’s homosexuality (illegal in 1934, when this is set) more of a plot point than it was (it’s touched on in the first part) – this would allow him extra screentime and possibly add an interesting angle to it. McKellen is 85, I hope this doesn’t constitute a flat coda in his esteemed career. At least he didn’t off fall the stage here.

It’s mercifully not an overlong runtime – I’m glad; I was starting to doze off towards the end…

My rating: 3 / 10