TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! A man who can go toe-to-toe with Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, and leave us rooting for the villain, Moriarty? Well, let’s just say they must be an actor of the highest magnitude. Plus they can play a priest as a love interest in Fleabag? They must also be a fountain of charisma. And to add to that, reinterpreting the character of Tom Ripley, in a Netflix miniseries, after a career-defining performance by Matt Damon? Well, that actor must be one of the boldest and most talented actors working today. Yes, Andrew Scott is all of these things.
In Elsinore, Andrew Scott is playing a version of the real-life Ian Charleson, who rose to fame with his performance in 1981’s Chariots of Fire. Charleson then struggled to achieve the same heights through the 1980s, before being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Knowing it will be his last, Charleson strives to put on a grueling production of Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.
Charleson has seen his friends in the gay community waste away, and he knows he has a finite time on this Earth. As he becomes unsettled by his own signs of illness, he seeks the care of Dr. Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman), a doctor far ahead of her colleagues in addressing AIDS, but one who isn’t very tolerant of patients who are pushing themselves to extremes, hastening their deaths.
Ian Charleson and Dr. Margaret Johnson look on together in a hospital hallway in Elsinore.
“Knowing it will be his last, Charleson strives to put on a grueling production of Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.”
Charleson fights with his doctor, but feels he has to go out doing what he loves. At the same time, he’s trying to keep his condition and sexuality a secret, leading to squabbles with openly gay filmmaker Derek Jarman, who gave Charleson his first film role. Charleson’s mental commitment is relentless, but his physical body is taken away from him, bit by bit.
Olivia Colman (The Crown, The Favourite) is amazing, as always, as Charleson’s stern doctor. Though they have a fierce tension in the beginning, it is resolved in a way that feels very human, instead of forced or theatric.
The film intercuts between scenes of Scott as Charleson performing Hamlet and his struggles in his community, with his family, and in the hospital with his disease. In that sense, we get to see Scott do something most actors would practically murder to do — perform a condensed version of Hamlet, while at the same time doing a wholly other role portraying an actor’s suffering while dying during it.
Yes, this film is Oscar bait. But Andrew Scott, director Simon Stone, and writers Stephen Beresford and Ethan Silverman have delivered so profoundly that I have no choice but to say, yes, give Andrew Scott his well-deserved Oscar. He may well be the best actor working alive who doesn’t have one. The film could easily have been overly sentimental or cloying, but instead it is introspective, complex, and it shines a light into a specific time and place that is insightful.
Elsinore was the winner of the International People’s Choice Award at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
"…Give Andrew Scott his well-deserved Oscar. He may well be the best actor working alive who doesn’t have one"
