Elsinore
Elsinore is a tour-de-force, emotional powerhouse of a feature that easily justifies its place as a Gala pick to open the festival proper. An emotional story of resilience in the face of illness, Elsinore addresses questions of purpose and asks whether it is better to live well or to live long. Based on the late actor and gay man Ian Charleson, the film follows his struggle after his HIV progresses into AIDS. With the prospect of a long life suddenly snatched from him, Charleson (Andrew Scott) has the once-in-a-lifetime role of Hamlet at a new National Theatre run thrust upon him. As Ian battles through the production, he encounters people from his past and tries to make amends while he still can.
Andrew Scott has a real affinity for portraying gay men on stage and screen, probably helped by his own queer identity. Ranging from the sexually fluid M in the 2009 run of Cock to the bookish Gethin in Pride (2014), Scott has a lot of experience with roles that explore the lived queer experience. So, being chosen to play such a prominent figure in the eyes of the LGBT community, Scott has a body of work to self-reference his performance from. The role of his that really felt the most familiar to me after watching Elsinore was his leading role in All of Us Strangers (2023); a role filled with depth and dependant on the actor’s emotional range. He did an excellent job then and an excellent job now - he brings the same level of performance to Elsinore. We see Ian’s despair and his hope and the pleading in his eyes to some unseen power to just let him last a few more weeks, just until the end of the run. The excerpts from Hamlet that are featured in the movie briefly showcase a fiery passion in Scott’s deliveries that makes me sad that I haven’t caught any of his over 150 performances of him in real life. This personal experience that Scott has with the character of Hamlet makes his choice as lead actor in Elsinore an obvious choice. Scott came out as a gay man over a decade ago – a luxury the real Ian Charleson never had, whose sexuality was only made public following his death. No doubt, this role must be a dream, and Andrew Scott makes that evident with a once-in-a-lifetime performance that feels like the role his career thus far has been leading up to.
The supporting cast of Elsinore include some mainstay British acting icons. Academy Award winner Olivia Colman ditches some of typical comic roles to play the no-nonsense doctor running the AIDS clinic that Ian attends. Her coldness (and occasional warmth) has quite the charm to it and reminds us all why Colman won that award in the first place. Billie Piper is difficult to recognise in her first film role in a few years. I was surprised by her ability and grew quite attached to her character as the film progressed. Her warmth is the antipode of Colman’s coldness that is one of the driving forces keeping Ian going.
Director Simon Stone is not a name I was familiar with before my watch. From scans of his directing credits, he seems to specialise in adaptations and dramatisations of real events. Elsinore seems to be a real break-out hit for Stone, with his directorial skills put to good use utilising the brutalist behemoth of the National Theatre. In the latter half, the story did seem to drag by a hair. However, until the hour mark the story is a textbook example of good pacing as each idea flows seamlessly into the next. This all comes back for the beautiful climax that chooses to end with a triumphant shot of Ian – happy, accomplished, and truly respected in his field. The tragic fate of Ian is left to the pre-credits epilogue, drilling home the film’s messages of legacy through art and of how our lives, no matter how brief, matter far more than our deaths.
Elsinore has been an absolute highlight of the festival so far, casting a light on a story I wasn’t familiar with and a moment in time that a lot of people are unfortunately far too familiar with. The viewer is guided through the film with an effortless pace, led from scene to scene, hooked entirely. The strong emotional core of this movie is piercing and a beautiful tribute to one of many men whose lives were cut short from AIDS. Bring your tissues.
