The Lost King

Sally Hawkins and Harry Lloyd in The Lost King

Stephen Frears' The Lost King tells the tale of Phillipa Langley's crusade to uncover the unmarked burial site of King Richard the 3rd of England and gives his remains a proper entombment. The film is a formulaic underdog story, Langley is constantly having her heels nipped at by academics and bureaucrats, redeemed by good acting and Frears' usual grasp of the undercurrents of relationships. 

The very Britishness of the subject makes this flick alien to most Americans who won't know what a wellie is, much less the intricacies of the Wars of the Roses. Still, it is that sense of Britishness, UK heritage, and English eccentricity that gives the film some sense of individuality. Langley is a divorcee living in Edinburgh with her two sons when, after seeing a production of Shakespeare's Richard III, she becomes obsessed with the life of the last Plantagenet king. She becomes convinced that Richard's has been unfairly besmirched by Tudor apologists like the Bard of Avon. Emboldened by members of the Richard III society, Langley endeavors to find the King's remains. In this she is helped greatly by the support of her ex-husband who is played by Steve Coogan, one of the writers of the script along with Jeff Pope.

Phillipa herself is played by Sally Hawkins. Hawkins is a superior player, but I'm not sure she is right for the part. Langley has chronic fatigue syndrome and the screenplay stresses her suffering in an attempt to engage our sympathy and heighten our appreciation of her struggle against the odds. Hawkins is often cast as a beleaguered and lonely outsider (because she is not a glamor puss or sex bomb), but I felt that her casting overemphasizes her character's underdog status. Similarly, Coogan's ex seems too good to be true. He moves back in with Phillipa after she quits her job to devote herself to her quest. This he does with a bare whimper of disapproval, something that stretches the audience's credulity with the usually cantankerous Coogan.    

Frears is so drawn to the warm ties that exist between the two exes that what is on the periphery of The Lost King, one dimensional villains and the slightly batty supporters of Richard, feels sketchy. Also, the appearances of Richard's ghost to Philippa never make an impression. Frears, a psychological realist, has no feel for the supernatural. Philippa's interactions with the apparition of Richard are awkward and sterile. There is little sense of an engagement of history as a living legacy, perhaps because the makers didn't want to get bogged down in historical detail.

My slight disappointment in the film is colored by my own interest in the topic. Ever since reading Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time decades ago, I have been interested with how Richard III's reputation has changed with the ebb and flow of history. Frears is more interested in people than history so The Lost King must be accepted on its own terms, but I found it to be a nice film and nice is a limiting adjective. Early on, Frears gave a little teeth to such dramas as The Hit, My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears, and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. His recent films haven't been completely toothless, but Philomena, Victoria and Abdul, The Queen, and now The Last King seem a bit complacent in their regard for English heritage.