Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott) is widely known as the re.al-life star of CHARIOTS OF FIRE. Its piano-led ubiquity in pop culture follows the Scottish actor everywhere, making him yearn less for Hollywood and more for his theater roots. When Daniel Day-Lewis walks off stage as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre, the role of a lifetime appears for Charleson — but so does an AIDS diagnosis. Dream and nightmare collide as Charleson strives to command the stage and survive as long as possible.
Andrew Scott delivers a career-best performance, wondrously celebrating both Charleson and Hamlet on screen. Through Scott, each real and fictional man’s confrontation with death becomes visceral, profoundly moving, and resoundingly answers Shakespeare’s famed question with “to be.” Olivia Colman brings a wellspring of empathy as a doctor treating Charleson and fellow gay men during the HIV epidemic, including a supporting turn from Heartstopper’s Joe Locke. Harnessing warmth and even wit, Queer Palm and BAFTA-winning screenwriter Stephen Beresford and director Simon Stone effectively fortify Charleson’s legacy in ELSINORE, a courageous testament to the meaning of life and art.
“Andrew Scott, who looks remarkably like Ian Charleson, gives an astonishingly layered and moving performance…. The tender power of ELSINORE is the way that Scott’s performance takes us right inside Ian’s state-of-mind — his belief that what’s left of his life needs to mean something, and that playing Hamlet will give it that meaning.” —Owen Gleiberman, Variety “ELSINORE works and delivers in spades. It is elevated by Scott’s committed, brave, and heart-warming performance…. Scott has to, and does, convince the audience that he is a dedicated actor playing a dedicated actor; it is difficult not to overact this role — particularly for someone who himself is known as a brilliant Hamlet — and Scott manages to do this almost to perfection.” —J. Don Birnam, Next Best Picture
