--- title: "Elsinore" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/elsinore" fi1m_id: "elsinore" imdb_id: "tt37363222" tmdb_id: 1599230 wikidata_id: "Q137722359" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-24T20:30:23.921387+00:00" updated: "2026-09-24T20:30:24.378155+00:00" region: "IS" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Elsinore (2026) Directed by Simon Stone · 1h 44m · Drama ## Identity Elsinore - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/elsinore - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** elsinore - **IMDb ID:** tt37363222 - **TMDB ID:** 1599230 - **Wikidata ID:** Q137722359 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37363222/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1599230, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137722359 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 81 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* A great performance of a man who refuses pity, in a film that cannot stop offering it > Andrew Scott is remarkable as Ian Charleson, an actor taking on Hamlet while dying of AIDS, and Simon Stone’s film is worth seeing for him. Around the performance is a biopic that explains its feelings and, in the final stretch, insists on them. ## Synopsis London, 1989. Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott), a Scottish stage actor, is HIV-positive and getting sicker, and he has told almost nobody. Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn) wants him to play Hamlet at the National Theatre, and Charleson wants the part more than he wants rest. The first act moves between the rehearsal room, a hospital and the flat where Derek Jarman (David Dawson) and the friends who know his diagnosis gather, while Jean Charleson (Georgie Glen) and the family at home do not. Charleson’s task is to get through the run before his body gives him away. The illness, the director’s doubts and the people who love him and want him to stop all stand in the way. ## Review Ian Charleson played Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989 and was dead by the following January, at forty. That is the shape of the story Simon Stone is telling, from a screenplay by Stephen Beresford, and *Elsinore* does not pretend otherwise; the title is the castle where the prince dies. What the film is trying to do is show a man who knows how it ends and decides to work anyway. Charleson (Andrew Scott, who also produces) is getting sicker, is being offered the biggest stage part of his life, and wants to get through the run on his own terms before anyone starts being kind to him. Scott is the reason to see it, and he would be the reason if the film around him were much worse than it is. He plays Charleson as a man managing two performances at once: the Hamlet, and the appearance of a well man who can still do it. Watch him in rehearsal, holding a wall a fraction longer than a fit actor would, then straightening before anyone turns round. In the Hamlet scenes themselves, which Stone stages at length, the lines do the double work they were always going to do, and Scott has the sense to play them small. He is not a dying man doing Hamlet. He is an actor doing Hamlet, and the dying gets in. Mike Eley shoots the theatre from the wings and the dressing room rather than the stalls, so we see the stage as the actor sees it: a bright rectangle beyond a black edge, other people’s faces lit from below. Helen Scott’s production design gives Charleson a flat full of paperbacks and a hospital that is all wipe-clean surfaces, and Mel Page keeps him in the same soft shirts and cardigans in both, which is a quiet way of saying he is the same person in each. The late 1980s are done without the usual clutter. There is no wall of period songs, and nobody says the year. Johnny Flynn plays Richard Eyre with the exact anxiety of a director who has cast someone he loves and fears he has made a mistake. David Dawson’s Derek Jarman gets a couple of scenes and makes them count. Olivia Colman (Margaret Johnson) and Billie Piper (Patsy) are around Charleson as people who know; Monica Dolan and Georgie Glen are among those who do not yet. The scene in which he tells his parents the two things he has been keeping from them undid us, and it was not the speech. It was Glen’s Jean Charleson listening, hands in her lap, working out which piece of news to be frightened of first. Then there is the rest of it, and the rest of it is a biopic that has seen other biopics. Beresford’s script keeps supplying lines that explain what the scenes have already shown, and Stone, who let [*The Dig*](https://film.one/film/the-dig) breathe, here hurries. Valerio Bonelli cuts the rehearsal period fast, the way films cut training sequences, so that weeks of work arrive as a handful of shots. Stefan Gregory’s score is good and patient for eighty minutes, mostly piano and low strings, and then in the last stretch it swells under a montage that stacks the film’s best moments on top of one another as if we might have missed them. We had not. We had been in tears ten minutes earlier, and we resented being asked again. Most critics have been warmer than we are, and we understand why: Scott is that good and the story is that sad. But Beresford’s [*Pride*](https://film.one/film/pride) found jokes and shape in a story about the same years and the same illness, and this one settles for being moving, which is easier. At 104 minutes it does not overstay, and the Hamlet scenes alone justify the ticket. Go for Scott. Know that the film will tell you when to cry, and that you will already have done so. *Fi1m score 74, published 24 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics find Elsinore deeply moving, and nearly all of the praise lands on Andrew Scott. Review after review singles out his performance as Ian Charleson, the actor preparing to play Hamlet while dying, as the film’s centre: raw, physically vulnerable and layered, particularly in the Hamlet scenes and in the scene where he tells his parents he is gay and ill. The Guardian goes as far as suggesting it may be his most remarkable screen work. Stefan Gregory’s score gets a smaller mention for keeping the film moving. The reservations are about everything around him. Several reviews call the biopic structure familiar and the direction unsubtle, and say the final act tips into melodrama, with one closing montage named as overblown. The spread is narrow: eleven of twelve reviews are positive. The only real dissent comes from IndieWire, which finds the film conventional and forgettable, with rushed editing and flat storytelling that Scott’s performance cannot rescue. ## Straight answers **Is Elsinore worth watching?** *Elsinore* is worth watching for Andrew Scott's performance as Ian Charleson, an actor playing Hamlet while dying of AIDS, and we scored it 74. Around him is a biopic that explains what its scenes have already shown and, in the final stretch, swells the score to tell you when to cry. Go for Scott; the Hamlet scenes alone justify it. **How long is Elsinore, and what is it rated?** *Elsinore* runs 1h 44m. It is a drama film. **Where can I watch Elsinore in Iceland?** *Elsinore* is not on any streaming or rental service in Iceland at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How does Elsinore compare to Chariots of Fire?** *Elsinore* and [*Chariots of Fire*](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire) share Ian Charleson: he runs on a beach in the earlier film, and Andrew Scott plays him dying in the later one. *Chariots of Fire* is the more complete film, with convictions and races worth watching, though its stately stretches drag. *Elsinore* has the better single performance and the weaker script, and suits anyone who can bear a sad story told a little insistently. **What should I watch after Elsinore?** After *Elsinore*, try [*Chariots of Fire*](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire) (1981, Fi1m 78): Charleson himself, running on a beach; the film that made him and still holds up. Then [*The Dresser*](https://film.one/film/the-dresser) (1983, Fi1m 80): A failing actor and the man who gets him on stage; backstage as a sickroom. ### Reviews we read (12) - **The AV Club**, Monica Castillo (90/100, inferred): Castillo finds the film deeply moving, with Andrew Scott delivering a remarkable, heartbreaking performance. She singles out his physical and emotional vulnerability as he portrays Ian Charleson’s illness and love of acting. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/andrew-scott-heartbreaking-performance-elsinore-all-of-us-strangers) - **The Guardian**, Benjamin Lee (90/100, inferred): Lee finds the film devastating and moving, with Andrew Scott delivering what may be his most remarkable screen performance. He particularly praises Scott’s raw, deeply felt portrayal of Charleson’s struggle and vitality. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/14/elsinore-movie-review-andrew-scott) - **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (90/100, inferred): Gleiberman finds the film powerfully moving and an effective art-house crowd-pleaser. He singles out Andrew Scott’s layered performance for making Ian Charleson’s struggle to give life meaning through Hamlet indelible. [Read](https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-1236852070/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (88/100, inferred): Rooney finds the film tremendously moving, despite occasional inspirational clichés and unsubtle direction. He singles out Andrew Scott’s emotionally powerful dual performance as Charleson and Hamlet. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-ian-charleson-olivia-colman-1236690579/) - **Screen Daily**, Dave Calhoun (75/100, inferred): Calhoun presents the film as a poignant and strongly affecting drama. He particularly praises Andrew Scott’s performance as Ian Charleson, calling it triumphant. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-is-triumphant-as-terminally-ill-scottish-actor-ian-charleson-in-poignant-80s-theatreland-drama/5220055.article) - **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (75/100, inferred): Willmore finds the film a good drama, elevated by Andrew Scott’s remarkable performance. She singles out Scott’s emotionally layered scene telling his parents he is gay and dying, while criticizing the finale’s overblown emotional montage. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-has-never-been-better.html) - **IndieWire**, Ryan Lattanzio (C): Lattanzio finds the film conventional and forgettable despite its serious subject, with Andrew Scott’s performance unable to overcome the awards-bait clichés. He praises Scott’s compelling portrayal of Ian Charleson, while criticizing the rushed editing and emotionally flat storytelling. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/elsinore-movie-review-andrew-scott-1235214584/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film heartbreaking and thrilling. Andrew Scott’s performance as Ian Charleson is singled out as its emotional anchor. [Read](https://deadline.com/2026/09/telluride-film-festival-2026-reviews-deadline-1237068524/) - **The Playlist** (85/100, inferred): The headline frames Andrew Scott’s performance as exceptional. The review’s broader verdict and any specific praise cannot be verified from the blocked page. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-gives-the-performance-of-a-lifetime-telluride-20260905/) - **Collider**, Therese Lacson (8/10): Lacson finds Elsinore a strong, moving tearjerker, though its third act leans too heavily into melodrama. She singles out Andrew Scott’s layered, emotionally powerful performance as Ian Charleson, especially in the Hamlet scenes. [Read](https://collider.com/andrew-scott-elsinore-movie-review-tiff/) - **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film emotionally powerful and praises Andrew Scott’s performance as its driving force. They also single out Stefan Gregory’s score for adding momentum and depth. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/elsinore-review-andrew-scott-hamlet/) - **Digital Spy** (78/100, inferred): The critic finds the drama moving and says Andrew Scott’s performance lifts its familiar biopic structure. Scott’s humanity is singled out for praise, though the film’s straightforward melodrama sometimes feels mechanical. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a73772080/elsinore-review-andrew-scott/) ## Details - **Director:** Simon Stone - **Director:** Simon Stone - **Screenplay:** Stephen Beresford - **Cinematography:** Mike Eley - **Editor:** Valerio Bonelli - **Music:** Stefan Gregory - **Production design:** Helen Scott - **Costume design:** Mel Page - **Producer:** Andrew Scott, Gabrielle Tana, Andrea Occhipinti - **Cast:** Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson; Olivia Colman as Margaret Johnson; Billie Piper as Patsy; Johnny Flynn as Richard Eyre; Luke Thompson as Georgie Randall; David Dawson as Derek Jarman; Matthew Beard as Sean; Joe Locke as Nicholas - **Runtime:** 1h 44m - **First release (the US):** 4 September 2026 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in Iceland Not streaming, renting or buying in Iceland at the last check. ## If you liked this - *Chariots of Fire* (1981), Fi1m 78: Charleson himself, running on a beach; the film that made him and still holds up — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire.md) - *Prick Up Your Ears* (1987): Another British life in the theatre, told with more spite and more jokes - *120 BPM* (2017): Paris in the same years; the illness as politics, argument and dancing, not just grief - *It's a Sin* (2021): Russell T Davies’s London flatshare through the epidemic; funnier and angrier than this - *The Dresser* (1983), Fi1m 80: A failing actor and the man who gets him on stage; backstage as a sickroom — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-dresser.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/elsinore