Elsinore is a moving portrayal of actor Ian Charleson, famous for starring in the multi-award-winning film Chariots of Fire, and the final performances he gave as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre.
Directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford, the film follows Charleson as he takes on one of theatre’s most punishing roles while secretly living with an AIDS diagnosis. The subject is a heartbreaking one, but the film is driven less by sorrow than by Charleson’s insistence to keep working no matter what.
Andrew Scott is truly outstanding in the lead. He offers Charleson as someone who refuses to let illness define the time he has left to live. When the chance comes to step in for Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet at the National Theatre, Ian knows full well that the physical demands could strain his fragile health even further. His doctor, Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman, excellent), urges him not to do it, but the actor sees the role as a last opportunity to do something that really matters instead of spending his last days on film sets.
That resolve makes up most of the film’s emotional core. Charleson isn’t just preparing for another job; he is facing his own mortality, and each night he walks out in front of an audience who know nothing of what he is carrying. As his condition worsens, his days are split between hospital appointments, rehearsals and performances. He completes 24 performances of Hamlet before illness finally stops him.
The National Theatre is a fitting backdrop as much of the film was shot there, and the building comes to feel like a character in Charleson’s swan song. The title, taken from the Danish castle in Shakespeare’s play, neatly links the world of Hamlet to the theatre where Charleson is racing to finish his own story.
Scott, who is credited as producer on the film, is surrounded by a strong ensemble including Billie Piper as best friend Patsy, Johnny Flynn as legendary stage and screen director Richard Eyre and Monica Dolan as Linda Tolhurst, the National Theatre’s longtime stage-door supervisor.
Colman is especially vital as Dr. Johnson, whose worry for her patient sets what is medically sensible against what Charleson needs to do. The film also traces his bonds with friends, colleagues and fellow patients, which gives the story a broader sense of community. The film doesn’t reduce Charleson to his diagnosis. His work, his friendships and his drive stay at the centre, and there is room for wit and warmth that keeps the tone from turning relentlessly grim.
Where it stumbles slightly is in how insistently it tells the audience how to feel. Swelling music and cross-cut montages do work that the performances have already done, and the conventional, humanist structure can feel engineered rather than organic. Charleson’s story carries enough weight on its own that it doesn’t need every single thing underlined.
Still, the film works, thanks to Scott’s performance and the force of the real story behind it. Elsinore is a heartfelt tribute to an actor who kept doing what he loved when everything around him said to stop. It can be heavy-handed, but its sincerity is never in doubt.
