Elsinore (c) Focus Features
Film: Elsinore
In Cinemas on November 20
Scottish actor Ian Charleson was made famous for playing a deeply religious runner in 1981’s Chariots of Fire, which surprisingly won the Best Picture Oscar over bigger films like Reds and On Golden Pond. As the new film Elsinore begins, it is eight years later, and Charleson (Andrew Scott) is still acting, auditioning for small film parts in London, with people recognizing him in Chariots, but specifically the Oscar-winning score by Vangelis. Although he wished he was a bigger film actor by now, his heart has always been on the stage, which is why he is sort of jealous of a hot young actor named Daniel Day-Lewis playing Hamlet at the Royal National Theatre. If you know theater lore, Daniel Day-Lewis famously walked off stage during a performance of Hamlet and quit. Hamlet director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn looking surprisingly like the real man) then approaches Charleson to replace him. The only hesitation the actor has to saying yes right away to performing his dream role at his favorite theater is that he has HIV, and doing any role, let alone one of the most grueling and energy-draining roles that is Hamlet, would put a strain on his body. He tells Eyre, who agrees to take the risk, but this doesn’t sit well with his no-nonsense doctor (the steely Olivia Colman), who just wants to keep Charleston alive.
