Sally Hawkins shines in very watchable King
Maybe the best thing about The Lost King was that it sent me on a mission to find out more about the definitively incredible true story that inspired it.
Of course, YouTube is hosting a goodly selection of documentaries you can watch for free. Because, as everyone knows, filmmakers, like musicians, are magical beings who don’t need money to live.
In 2012, an archaeological dig in a councilowned car park in the English city of Leicester did what almost no archaeological dig ever achieves: it found what it was looking for.
Years before, Philippa Langley, the Edinburgh-based chairperson of the Richard III Society, had stood on that exact spot – it was even marked with a large, painted R, for ‘‘reserved’’ – and became convinced that Richard was buried there.
If you were really desperate to make the most obvious dad joke possible, you could even say Philippa had a hunch about it.
What followed is shown in The Lost King as one plucky woman’s battle against the forces of bureaucracy and academia as she fights to have her volumes of research taken seriously and then raise the money herself for an excavation. As always, the truth is a lot more nuanced – and real-life usually doesn’t feature such clearly defined good and bad guys.
But stories need villains. William Shakespeare gave us the idea of Richard as a murderous and deformed tyrant, while the truth is a lot less clear-cut.
And The Lost King is happy to unsubtly set up a couple of characters here as mansplaining toss-pots who couldn’t stand to see an unqualified woman succeed on their patch.
In her 2013 book, on which The Lost King is based, Philippa thanks these same men for their assistance and encouragement. That’s showbusiness, I guess. Whoever wrote Shakespeare’s plays would have done the same thing.
Director – and Leicester native – Stephen Frears and co-writer Steve Coogan are happy to take the path of least resistance to get The Lost King onto a screen.
Sally Hawkins is reliably superb as Philippa. Hawkins is in nearly every scene, conjuring up a nervy, restless portrayal of a woman who somehow seems both easily discouraged and completely implacable. With a typically wry and likeable Coogan as Philippa’s supportive ex-husband, The Lost King has exactly the cast it needs to bring the script to life.
The one creative flourish in the screenplay is to introduce an actor playing Richard as a friend and sounding board for Philippa. It jarred at first, but it is also a valid and occasionally funny way of bringing Philippa’s thoughts and internal monologues to life.
The film portrays Philippa as essentially alone and isolated for much of her journey, but a film script needs its actors to talk to each other, so we can listen in and understand what is happening. And this imaginary playmate device at least gives Philippa someone to have a conversation with.
Also, Harry Lloyd – the actor playing the actor playing Richard – was Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. So he’s got form at being a doomed and hated king.
The Lost King is a breezy, enjoyable and very watchable film. Frears, as always, sets his stages simply and perfectly – and then lets his cast do their work without much interference or attention grabbing from behind the camera.
When the true story is so unbelievably good, a compressed and over-simplified retelling of it is probably still enough to yield a pretty entertaining film. But if you do find yourself anywhere near YouTube today, the documentary The King in the Car Park is maybe even better.
Much like Richard III himself, the real story and people are more interesting and engaging than the fictional versions.