By Dan Skip Allen

More and more lately, there have been films made about Hollywood or actors and / or actresses there or abroad.. The latest is a film called “Elsinore” about the famous British stage and screen actor from the 80s Ian Charleson (Chariots of Fire) played by Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers, Blue Moon). The film is directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford. It premiered at this past September’s Toronto International Film Festival.  It got a standing ovation mainly for the performance by Scott. He has given his share of great performances in the past, but I agree this might, in fact, be the best of his career.

Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott) is an actor who is doing audions for films, but he would rather be on the stage instead. He hangs out with his friends in his free time, but he is under fire for being different from them on screen. He’s a gay actor who has been taking straight roles. When he gets word that Daniel Day Lewis has walked off of stage at the Royal Albert Hall in a production of Hamlet. His longtime friend Patsy Pollack (Billie Piper) tells him about the chance, and he goes to another friend of his, Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn), to request the role. The problem is he’s been going to the doctor to get his annual checkups, and he has to tell him the truth about something he’s kept secret on, that he’s got HIV/Aids.

Andrew Scott has played a lot of different kinds of characters in his career, but this one might be one of the most authentic to who he is as a person. I feel that from watching him in this film, he is as genuinely this man as I have ever seen play any character in his entire career. He has levels to who this man is.The actor/ friend are the same man, but they both are sick and have to deal with this debilitating illness and everything that comes with it. The chemotherapy, the recovery process, and still trying to be who he has always wanted to be as an actor and man are the keys to why this character works so well. Scott puts everything he has on the table and goes all in on this role. He’s very emotional, sad, and everything in between. If this isn’t an Oscar winning performance, I don’t know what is. This is clearly the best performance I’ve seen all year, and I’ve seen a lot of them this year so far.

The title of the film “Elsinore” comes from the castle of Hamlet. The thing is, this title has a double fold meaning to it. I loved how something like this is an important thing in the context of the movie. That’s just one of the little things in the script that Beresford has put in there that makes this film interesting to me. The multiple levels to the story like these are why this story is so much more than I originally thought. The illness, the stage production of Hamlet, and the lifestyle this man leads are all part of those levels. The key to a great script is to weave all of these things together. This one does an amazing job at that.

Another technical aspect of this movie is the editing. With the multiple levels of the story going on, they have to be put to screen in a way that makes a lot of sense to the story and the viewers who are watching the film. The editing in this movie is some of the best I’ve seen all year. The editing does a great job of weaving together the pieces of this man’s life and the story in a great way. Every time the story switched from one aspect to another, I was just as interested in what and who was on screen. That’s how great editing should work. It keeps you glued to the screen no matter who and what is on screen. 

Besides Scott, there is an incredible supporting cast in the movie. I’m starting off with a couple I’ve mentioned already. Billie Piper and Johnny Flynn are both terrific in their roles. David Dawson, Luke Thompson, and Joe Locke are all fantastic. They all add another level to this story. Their friendships with the Scott character are what makes them so good in their roles. The one actress who is just as good as an actor as Scott is is Olivia Colman. She has already won an Oscar and Emmy in her career, so you know she can hold her own opposite Scott in this film or any other for that matter. She has played quirky and funny characters in the past, but here she’s pretty straightforward in her performance. She’s serious and has a role opposite Scott that is so important in the film and in general. She is an incredible actress and does a good job once again here.This ensemble cast as a whole is pretty good opposite one of if not the greatest male performances of the year in Scott. He’s Oscar worthy.

“Elsinore” is a hard film to watch but in a good way. It deals with some very heavy material and difficult subject matter. Any story that deals with the AIDS epidemic isn’t a lighthearted one. You’re dealing with someone being sick and most likely going to die. That’s not easy to digest. The director, Stone, in partnership with the writer Beresford, does a great job of bringing this story to the big screen.They couldn’t have done it without Scott giving a tour de force performance. He’s won his fair share of awards in the past, but the one that still eludes him is an Oscar. That may change next year because he gives an Oscar worthy performance as this man dying from Aids but wants to give one last great performance at a place he greatly respects. The rest are also good, including Olivia Colman. The editing is very good and shows all the different angles to this story very well. They are balanced quite nicely by this great editing. This was a hard but worthwhile film to watch if not for the great Scott performance. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you should give it a chance anyway. It’s worth that much.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars