COMIC DRAMA; 1hr 40min
STARRING: Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, James Corden, Jessica Gunning
Art-full: Coel and McKellen
Julian Sklar (McKellen, slaying every syllable) is an 85-year-old once-mighty artist turned commercial sell-out with a viperish tongue and two greedy adult children he despises (Corden as “dud” Barnaby and Baby Reindeer’s Gunning as “harridan” Sallie). Lori Butler (Coel) is also an artist, although one of a very different standing, sketching street scenes outside her London food truck. Her current situation, however, is in no way related to Lori’s impressive talent, hence the dud and the harridan’s eagerness to secure a bogus inheritance by employing her on the sly to complete (i.e., forge) an unfinished, 1990s series of their father’s paintings, “The Christophers”, while posing as his assistant. Although initially disapproving, and no fan of the acerbic Mr Sklar, Lori agrees to the lucrative gig.
Physically frail as he is, Julian still proves to be quite the wit. (“Weinstein has ruined the robe for the rest of us,” he remarks on day one when his new assistant objects to his bare chest and dressing gown.) And while his grand old row house is as chaotic, decor-wise, as his rambling monologues, Julian’s sensibility is razor-sharp: when he catches onto what Lori is really up to, with director Steven Soderbergh expertly calling the shots, Ed Solomon’s whip-snapping screenplay segues into a cat-mouse corker of shifting alliances. The drawcard through them all is the full-steam rapport between McKellen and Coel. As two lonely strangers who somehow contrive to find each other, the newfound soulmates couldn’t be more at home with the sweep of notes on their overarching tone scale.
