Andrew Scott will break your heart…
film review
ELSINORE
Running time: 111 minutes. Not yet rated. In theaters Nov. 20.
The highly effective phrases “remember me” are spoken a number of occasions throughout “Elsinore,” the AIDS drama starring an unforgettable Andrew Scott that’s taking part in in the Toronto International Film Festival.
They are, of course, the pressing request of the ghost of King Hamlet, the Shakespearean monarch who was murdered by his brother Claudius and, from the grave, orders his son to avenge his death.
“Hamlet” performs a central position in the fantastically acted “Elsinore,” if the title didn’t already give that away. But the command has a twin assembly in its setting of late-Eighties England. Young males are dying and worry being forgotten.
There is a frequent argument made, and one I actually have, that the onset of the AIDS epidemic and generic coming-out tales inordinately dominate homosexual motion pictures. That’s still as true as ever. Therefore, if you’re going to inform another one, it’s important to discover a distinctive means in order for a movie to keep away from cliche and have any poignancy.
That’s what director Simon Stone’s “Elsinore” managed to do with its alternative of subject: Ian Charleson, the Scottish “Chariots of Fire” star and classical actor who died from causes associated to AIDS at age 40 in 1990, just seven weeks after taking part in Hamlet onstage for 24 historic performances at London’s National Theatre.
Andrew Scott stars as Ian Charleson in “Elsinore.” Anthony Dickenson
Sick, weak and in agonizing pain, Charleson willed his failing physique to rehearse and take on the titanic half — the most mentally and bodily taxing in the complete Western theatrical canon — because that phrase rang out in his own head: “Remember me.”
That’s a high-stakes personal battle, as nicely as a sophisticated one. In his hard-fought battle for life and legacy, Ian is also attempting to show to himself that he needn’t fade away and disappear. Still, Charleson’s disease was not made publicly recognized until after he died. For better or worse, he didn’t need it to distract from his appearing.
You can really feel a palpable connection between Charleson and Andrew Scott, the marvelous actor taking part in him in a shattering efficiency with no false notes. The “All of Us Strangers” star has also been a Hamlet in the West End, and innately grasps Shakespeare’s phrases and is aware of their transformative energy.
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Scott, in many roles, is often strongwilled and so is Charleson. When director Richard Eyre casts him as Hamlet — changing Daniel Day Lewis, who infamously walked off the stage and left the manufacturing — he begins seeing a doctor recognized for getting sufferers sometimes years more time. He’s resolved to go on with the show, no matter the results to his health.
Dr. Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman, including to her stern-but-kind resume), who’s in the business of maintaining people alive, doesn’t like the thought. His physique wants to relaxation, not swordfight. But seeing how a lot it means to Ian, she relents, saying, “If you’re going to play this part, there will be no more talk of death.”
Wittily replies Ian: “That might be tricky.”
Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman in “Elsinore,” which had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Anthony Dickenson
Like with Hamlet, Scott has a lot of demons to conquer as Ian. There’s the bodily side, as he turns into gaunt and frail, and the thunderous emotional storm of confronting a seemingly deadly diagnosis. But Ian also is wracked with guilt as he retains his disease a secret for a lot of the film, even from his forged, and rebuffs an actor buddy who says it’s very important that he pronounces his standing to the world.
He’d have to start with his household. A troublesome scene in the hospital with his mother and dad is when most viewers will lose it. Ian’s barely underdeveloped friendship with an-early profession actor named Nicholas (Joe Locke from “Heartstopper”) dying from AIDS is also affecting.
“Half the theaters in the West End must be empty,” Nicholas clinically observes. I choked up at that.
Andrew Scott attends the premiere of “Elsinore” during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Getty Images
Scott handles all of this with hidden-camera naturalism, helped out by Stone, who, while embracing a simplicity of type, also doesn’t just plant a digital camera and let his lead park and bark, as is typical of British biopics.
The director does go a little overboard with montages in the end — juxtaposing the glory of the stage with the grim realities of home and displaying the problem for Ian of performing Hamlet while placing on a courageous face. A bucket is saved offstage for him to vomit in, for instance, and at evening he endures sharp, stabbing pains. There’s just an excessive amount of spliced in.
But those thrives don’t take away from Scott’s miraculous flip and the enriching expertise of remembering an actor who, at the bottom level in his life, made the daring and proper resolution for himself: To be.
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