The Lost King
Domestic monotony, a chronic medical condition and history itself cross paths in the true story of a middle-aged mother who discovers an unexpected passion.
Looking for Richard: Sally Hawkins in Edinburgh
People are quite extraordinary. And sometimes they achieve something so unusual that they end up in the news. The director Stephen Frears has made many films based on real people, from members of the underclass to royalty. Here he focuses on Philippa Langley, a divorcee and mother of two with ME and a dead-end job. In the hands of Frears and the actress Sally Hawkins, she is not unlike any lost soul just down the road, and as such is a blank canvas who has the potential to spring into life. Sally Hawkins has made a career playing ordinary souls entrenched in the mundane and is all the more empathetic and credible for it.
Battling chronic fatigue and constantly passed over for promotion at work, Philippa encounters a kindred spirit in the form of a misunderstood king while out at the theatre to see Shakespeare’s Richard III. And so she embarks on a personal odyssey to discover more about the last Plantagenet, famously defiled by Shakespeare’s play. Drawing on the availability of textbooks, academia, Zoom calls with history devotees and a Richard III fan club, she begins to piece together a fresh profile of history’s favourite villain. And then she does something out of the ordinary (for her) – she secretly takes a train from Edinburgh to Leicester…
Like most films inspired by true stories about ordinary people who battle the odds in order to realise their dream, The Lost King is at turns angering, inspiring and deeply touching. However, if Philippa Langley appears like a complete nutcase to the bureaucrats and scholars that she locks horns with, the film does her few favours by introducing the ghost of Richard III as a regular companion. It does lend the proceedings a note of whimsy which it could do without, but the central conceit – still relatively fresh in the public memory, following the headlines of 2012 – is strong enough to keep the audience invested. Scripted by Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, who previously collaborated on Frears’ Philomena (which garnered them an Oscar nomination), The Lost King is replete with knowing touches that grounds it in the everyday, albeit with a few stock characters. Coogan himself, as Philippa’s estranged husband, is exceptionally good, with an understated display of confusion and sarcasm harnessed to a caring concern. He and Hawkins are a wonderful double act, their devastated marriage still comfortable and warm with affection.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd, Mark Addy, Amanda Abbington, James Fleet, Lee Ingleby, Adam Robb, Benjamin Scanlan, Robert Jack, Jessica Hardwick, Alasdair Hankinson, Julian Firth.
Dir Stephen Frears, Pro Steve Coogan, Christine Langan and Dan Winch, Screenplay Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, Ph Zac Nicholson, Pro Des Andy Harris, Ed Pia Di Ciaula, Music Alexandre Desplat, Costumes Rhona Russell, Historical advisor Tobias Capwell.
Baby Cow Productions/BBC Film/Ingenious-Pathé Productions.
108 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 7 October 2022. Cert. 12.
