The reviews are out for Andrew Scott’s true-life drama Elsinore – with the Irish actor said to be in pole position to take home Best Actor at next year’s Academy Awards.
Elsinore, which is currently showing as part of the London Film Festival ahead of a full cinema release in January, sees Scott (Sherlock; Fleabag) play Scottish actor Ian Charleson in the midst of his final run as Hamlet at the National Theatre in the weeks leading up to his death.
Charleson took over the role of Hamlet shortly after Daniel Day-Lewis famously walked off stage mid-performance, never to return to live theatre again. Charleson, who was gay, died of AIDS-related causes at the age of 40.
Reviews of the film have lauded Scott’s performance, with many suggesting that he is a shoo-in for the coming awards season.
A win would make Scott the first openly gay actor to win the prize in the ceremony’s 97-year history.
The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee awarded the film four stars, writing: “It’s a devastating movie, and at its Toronto premiere, tears were shed by many, but it’s peppered with the kind of black gallows humour that Charleson himself used to get through it all.
“There’s no artifice to Scott’s deeply felt performance despite being an actor playing an actor playing a character, he makes it all feel as real and as raw as it can be. “
In a five-star review in The Times, Kevin Maher wrote: “The London Film Festival has kicked off with groans of sadness and rivulets of snot and tears as this weapons-grade weepie announces itself, immediately, as the year’s Oscar frontrunner.
“Andrew Scott, the former Hot Priest from Fleabag, has all but secured the best actor trophy. [...] A cynic might argue that Scott is merely playing Oscar bingo here. His character is dying (Terms of Endearment), he is gay (Milk), he has Aids (Philadelphia), he’s a real person (The Theory of Everything), he’s an entertainer (Bohemian Rhapsody), he’s struggling to put on a show (The Artist), and that show is Hamlet (Hamnet). The film, thankfully, is not for cynics. Just everyone else.”
Vulture’s Alison Willmore described Scott’s performance as “phenomenal”, writing: “If [Elsinore’s plot] all sounds excruciatingly sad, it’s actually often darkly droll, thanks to a script from Stephen Beresford that leans into its protagonist’s habit of responding to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with a deadpan quip.”
“Elsinore is in many ways styled as an art-house crowd-pleaser,” wrote Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, “and on that score it faces steeper odds than a film like this one might have a few decades ago. But Andrew Scott makes it an indelible journey.”
In addition to Scott, the film also stars Olivia Colman as his doctor, and the supporting cast includes Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, and David Dawson.
This Oscar season, Scott is expected to be up against actors such as Matt Damon, who could be nominated for his lead role in the Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey, and John Malkovich, who plays a dying CIA agent in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy Wild Horse Nine.
Read MoreElsinore director reveals what Daniel Day-Lewis really thinks about Hamlet film
Simon Pegg confirms life-changing diagnosis: ‘It’s just who I am’
Why a Korean film about a 1974 shooting has sparked protests and a political row
Oppenheimer star returns to acting after ‘indefinite break’ that lasted two months
Glen Powell has a message for fans asking about his politics
Michael Douglas reveals affair with Basic Instinct star – but it’s not Sharon Stone
