For me, there isn’t a smoother way to start a film than by listening to the hum of the studio logo for Focus Features. The gentle strings take me back to when I first dove deeper into movies. My lexicon was the Oscars, and I'd dig into each year’s Wikipedia page to see the nominees and winners. Naturally, my gaze shifted towards the 2000s, the period when I would recognize the names of famous movie stars who appeared in some of my favorite blockbusters. With big award hits like The Pianist, Brokeback Mountain, and Atonement, Focus Features was prominently featured in those Wikipedia pages, placing itself as the preeminent distributor for serious-minded cinephiles.

Of course, that’s a bit of a hoity-toity way to see things. But I was a teenager who wanted to take movies seriously, and to seem serious to other people. Who didn’t back then? Many of those films became some of my favorites, relics of a different era that I fondly look back on. Trying its hardest to recapture that unashamed sense of Oscar earnestness (“bait” is the pejorative word used sometimes) this year is Focus Features’ Elsinore, proudly splashing its emotional gamut across the screen for all to see, inviting tears, laughter, and catharsis.

Much of the laughter comes from the predicament actor Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott) has put himself in by starring in the 1981 Best Picture-winning film Chariots of Fire. Myself included, it’s a film people only remember for its opening scene: young men racing barefoot along the beach, accompanied by the famous piano anthem by Vangelis. You’ve definitely heard it before, even if you didn’t know that it originated from that film. Charleson never got the career boost one would expect from leading such a major motion picture, continuing the decade as a working actor in less-than-ideal parts for television and film. In every audition, someone reminds him of that film, a curse he has to politely laugh off.

Not a laughing matter was the secret of Charleson’s homosexuality, as well as his HIV/AIDS diagnosis. The marks on his skin from the disease make him a professional liability; the stigma permeates throughout both casting halls and doctors’ offices. Luckily, he has an ally in National Theatre artistic director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn), who’s been put in a tough spot after Daniel Day-Lewis abruptly walked out halfway through a performance of Hamlet and refused to ever come back (true story). Eyre gives Charleson the role he’s always dreamed of, establishing a new sense of life for a man on a death sentence.

While few remember Charleson’s performance in Chariots of Fire, everyone will remember Andrew Scott’s portrayal of him during this period. It is acting in all capital letters, offering a raw look into someone grappling with their own mortality as they take on an immortal role. He is witty with a joke, especially to the disapproving Dr. Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman, coming full circle after playing a theater owner who hosted the regional premiere of Chariots of Fire in Empire of Light). She grants years when other doctors can only muster weeks; her stern methods eventually pioneer practices for medical research.

Of course, a steely doctor always warms up to their most rascally patient. It’s not hard for her to do that when Scott/Charleson is lighting up every room he walks into with his sincerity. It’s why he’s such a good actor, somehow never telling a lie as he makes you believe he’s the Prince of Denmark. Director Simon Stone keeps the depth of field shallow and the palette cool, allowing Scott’s face to be our north star throughout this largely weepy story. As a famous performer of Hamlet himself, it’s endlessly fascinating to watch him channel the role within another role, adding new layers of context to material that has spanned almost half of a millennium.

This is a film that bluntly wants you to feel exactly what it wants, when it wants. It can be a bit aggravating at times to be steered so hard in each direction, with screenwriter Stephen Beresford underlining and bolding each point with a dark felt pen. Stefan Gregory’s orchestra and piano score share the same strategy, grabbing hold of our ears as editor Valerio Bonelli cuts montages of the rehearsals and performances. This is Shakespeare after all, so a little melodrama is par for the course.

Elsinore had its Canadian premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Focus Features will release the film in select theaters on November 20th.