Elsinore arrived at TIFF on September 12 carrying one of the festival's most closely watched performances. On Sunday, the Toronto International Film Festival confirmed what screening audiences had already signaled, awarding Simon Stone's biographical drama the International People's Choice Award.
The film, written by Stephen Beresford, centers on Scottish actor Ian Charleson. After Daniel Day-Lewis walked away from the National Theatre's Hamlet production in 1989, Charleson took the role while living with AIDS and Kaposi's sarcoma. He performed 24 shows before his death in January 1990, at age 40. Andrew Scott plays Charleson. Olivia Colman portrays his physician, Dr. Margaret Johnson, a pioneer in HIV and AIDS care. Johnny Flynn plays National Theatre director Richard Eyre.
The film has a Telluride world premiere behind it and a divided critical record. Rotten Tomatoes puts it at 88% across 32 reviews. Metacritic sits at 75. Those who admire it point to Scott's performance as the clearest thing in the film. Those who don't argue the editing leans on montage when it should let scenes breathe, and that the material is handled with more calculation than feeling.
Focus Features opens Elsinore in U.S. theaters on November 20. The TIFF International People's Choice Award is historically one of the stronger Oscar indicators on the calendar. Twenty-two past winners received Best Picture nominations. Elsinore is not this year's People's Choice winner, but the international prize puts it in the conversation. Whether the Academy tracks audience response or critical ambivalence is the question that awards season will now answer.