DIRECTOR: Stephen Frears
CAST: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd, James Fleet, John-Paul Hurley, Phoebe Pryce, Benjamin Scanlan, Adam Robb
RUNNING TIME: 108 mins
CERTIFICATE: 12A
BASICALLY…: An amateur historian (Hawkins) discovers the unexpected resting place of King Richard III…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
With King Charles III now sitting on the throne, it’s hard to imagine that the last time there was any other significant news about a King – and another “III” at that – was ten years ago, when an archaeological excavation in a Leicester car park unearthed the long-lost skeletal remains of King Richard III. These events are covered in The Lost King, a dramatized rendition from the creative team behind the excellent Philomena (including director Stephen Frears, and co-writers Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, the former also taking on a supporting role), although anyone hoping for lightning to strike twice with this lot might not exactly find themselves in the winter of their discontent.
Speaking of Shakespeare, it is indeed his iconic – but since proven to be historically inaccurate – play based on the monarch’s life that prompts our hero, Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), to conduct her initial investigation. Langley, who in the film is depicted as a mawkish Edinburgh-based salesperson suffering from chronic fatigue and struggling with a failed, but still somewhat amicable, marriage to businessman John (Coogan), is unexpectedly sympathetic to the monstrously-portrayed King in a production she sees with a typically hammy actor (Harry Lloyd), and decides to conduct her own amateur research into his history, which had been warped by the victorious Tudors. Her findings soon lead her to an ordinary car park in Leicester, which she deduces to have been the burial place for the slain King, and eventually leads an excavation to unearth the fallen monarch after centuries of being lost to the world.
There are moments throughout the film where you can spot that Philomena magic at work once again, particularly when it dives into the information that caused Richard III’s name and reputation to be dragged through the mud by Tudor propaganda, and especially by Shakespeare’s play. Coogan and Pope’s script touches upon plenty of these interesting factoids surrounding Richard III, with the historical figure himself – also played by Lloyd – showing up regularly as an apparition to guide Philippa on her journey (although at first, the presence is a little unsettling, particularly when he’s just standing and staring at her like he’s Michael Myers). This adds a gentle quirkiness to the straightforward story, which is also dominated by Sally Hawkins’ strong lead turn as Langley, who brings restraint as well as humanity to someone clearly driven by passion and fascination for their subject.
However, what The Lost King lacks that Philomena more than packs in itself is a true sense of sincerity. The film is a very fictionalised account of real-life events, which means that liberties have inevitably been taken to make the story palatable for the screen, but there is such a thing as taking too much liberty with something, to a point where the dramatization simplifies things so much that it comes across as artificial and even cartoonish. This is the kind of movie where the lead character faces condescension, gender and age-based discrimination, and general doubt around almost every corner, and her oppressors are always the most stereotypically foppish and high-strung individuals who appear to have zero redeeming qualities about them (needless to say, the University of Leicester – who, according to this movie, claimed credit for Langley’s hard work and are thus depicted as particularly cruel throughout the film’s second half – have already come out against this film). The script takes such a black-and-white approach to presenting this singular point of view that it just feels one-sided, and makes it all but impossible to get wrapped up in the storytelling since you’re always aware that the truth is not always on display here.
Crucially, though, the main story in and of itself just isn’t as investing as it really wants to be. There is little genuine conflict beyond the one-note condescension, not just because you already know the outcome but also because the script itself doesn’t seem to invest enough of itself into developing them to a point where such problems are legitimately troubling for our protagonist. It breezes past much of the stuff that actually were significant barriers for Langley and her collaborators in real life (which is fair enough, because endless talks about council funding and reading lots of books on Richard III isn’t exactly what one would call cinematic), and it makes everything look stunningly easy to pull off, all but ignoring the years of work that she put into her project which, here, are condensed into mere months.
While it is noble in nature and intention, The Lost King is a bit of a disappointment, because this is a story that does deserve a genuinely strong dramatization in the same realm as Philomena, but here it is instead simplified and condensed so much that it removes most of the stuff that would have made this truly shine on the screen. Clearly, Frears and his creative team were aiming for that same kind of tone and feel, except there is little of that warm humanity and intriguing storytelling that made Philomena such a powerful film. This one just ticks boxes and moves along, investing nowhere near as much energy or commitment for a story that really does deserve a fairer, and less straightforward, treatment.
Like the doomed monarch himself (or at least, like how Shakespeare envisioned him), you’ll be going just a little bit mad that it’s not as good as it seriously could have been.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Lost King is a disappointingly simplified dramatization of the 2012 discovery of King Richard III’s remains, which removes much of the genuine conflict and humanity of the actual events (save for Sally Hawkins’ sympathetic lead turn), and turns it into a straightforward and surprisingly one-note drama not entirely worthy of a King.
