What stands out most after noticing the amazing performance of Andrew Scott is the cold brutalism architecture style of the National Theatre in London.  In the film it seems subtracted from color and appears like a tomb. It contrasts the soft and occasional saturated color vibrancy of life outside of the theater and on its stage.  It’s a stand-in-place fill in for Elsinore. The castle where Hamlet takes place, where Hamlet faces death, seeks revenge, avenges, and questions who he is and what he should be before death comes to him. Ian Charleson is facing death and he feels like he will die if can’t do “Hamlet” . He’s compelled to do it, he must perform, he must be an actor even if it kills him. It’s the  balancing of doing the diligence of the treatment to combat the AIDS virus he contradicted and the diligence demanded to play Hamlet at the National Theatre.   Andrew Scott is nothing short then amazing, absolutely sensational  playing real life actor, the late Ian Charleson. A man who can’t escape a role he did in an earlier film “Chariots of Fire”. Ian is seeking a change, a challenge to being an actor and be stripped of his label, of what he is famous for. Doing “Hamlet” will provide that and a reason to live. Acting for Ian is a reason to live while his doctor, played equally sensational by Olivia Colman, wants him to focus on staying alive.

“Elsinore” is a rich enveloping character study film. It’s terrific writing and that is well emphasized with an amazing ensemble cast. “Elsinore” will be in my top ten best films of the year, and I have little doubt it will be nominated for best picture and Andrew Scott will be nominated for best actor. It has all the ingredients for a great film and demands a rewatch.

What is most clever with the film is how it is not overtly clever with its writing. It is writing for what is needed for the story. It knows the beats and the changes. There is a scene where Andrew Scott’s character must seek out the rest of the cast of Hamlet in the film. This is a time where writers desperately want to write to be impressive to heavy and what is decided is so much of what the character would do instead of what a writer would do- it made the film. But it also knows when to hit. A combative shouting match in the back of a hospital between Ian and Derek is shot near a dumpster fire as they burn hospital sheets and gowns worn by patients with AIDS spot on of course with the staging. It is that see-sawing of story crafting that makes the film one of the best of the year. 9.5/10

The film, much like the play, is about death, and how are you going to approach it. Death is more than just physical decay and Ian showed everyone by playing him in the last remaining months of his life, to understand death and the fear of it and  “The Rest is Silence” Hamlet. 9.5/10