The Lost King Review

The discovery of Richard III’s body was a major event for the city of Leicester and historians. One of the people involved in the search was Philippa Langley and her story gets told in The Lost King.

Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins) is a divorced mother of two who gets passed over for promotion. After taking one of her sons to watch a performance of Richard III in Edinburgh she becomes obsessed with the controversial king. Her obsession leads to her researching Richard III and trying to find his grave, but Philippa faces resistance because of her lack of academic qualifications and her gender.

The story of Richard III is well known. He was the hunchback usurper who murdered his nephews and was killed during the Battle of Bosworth. This is the story in William Shakespeare’s famous play and the one school children are taught. However, there’s more to Richard III than this popular story and Philippa’s mission was to end historical misconceptions.

As a history fan The Lost King should have appealed to me. It had a message that history is complicated, and most people are made up of shades of grey, not black and white. There are no easy answers in history. Philippa’s logic in the film is Richard III had no way to defend himself, so she took on the task of repairing his reputation. Yet to do this The Lost King made its own historical misconception.

The Lost King has been made with controversy due to its portrayal of the University of Leicester. They were shown to be hogging all the credits after they were dismissive of Philippa’s research. Richard Taylor (Lee Ingleby), the representative for the University of Leicester did get the short straw because he was portrayed as a sexist weasel who dismissed Philippa as an ill-informed amateur who based her reasoning on gut feelings. He was the first man in front of the cameras when the discovery was made. It was a case that Taylor was made into a villain because the film needed a villain. At the time of writing Taylor is considering taking legal action against the filmmakers because of his portrayal in The Lost King.

Coogan, who co-wrote The Lost King as well as starred in it, has come out swinging to defend the film. He claims that the University of Leicester was embarrassed that an amateur was able to find the gravesite when many academics couldn’t. His defences felt more like Randall Wallace and Oliver Stone when they made Braveheart and JFK where historical facts shouldn’t get in the way of telling the truth. It didn’t help that the film made many historical errors like Philippa’s ex-husband and sons going to see Skyfall before Richard III’s body was exhumed, and Philippa was 50 in 2012 instead of 45 like she was in the film.

The Lost King was a case of filing real events into the theme the filmmakers wanted to tell. In The Lost King case, it was a story of a woman fighting the patriarchy. The film opened with the phrase ‘Her Story,’ like how The Last Duel stated Jodie Comer’s story was ‘The Truth.’ The Lost King started with Philippa getting passed over for promotion because she was a middle-aged woman. Phillipa was judged because she had based many of her conclusions on feelings. The message being women were given harsher treatment because they were the ‘emotional sex.’

Some audiences won’t care too much about historical accuracy because they just want to see a good story. However, the story feels rushed because Philippa develops an interest in Richard III and quickly figured out a potential location for Richard III’s burial site. She based a lot of her conclusions based on instinct and hunches and showed up academics by offering basic suggestions.

Throughout the film Phillipa saw Richard III and she communicated with the king. The aim was to show the connection between the pair, but this idea made it seem like Phillipa was suffering from a mental breakdown. The king’s presence gave The Lost King an unnecessarily supernatural element as he guided Phillipa during her mission. It was fortunate that Sally Hawkins was such an incredible actress and audiences could buy into her obsession and stress.

The filmmakers realised that a film about historical and archaeological research did not have the best cinematic potential. The film added a personal element involving Philippa and her ex-husband, John (Coogan). Despite being divorced the pair had an amicable relationship, yet Philippa had to win John over to get his support.

The Lost King was directed by Stephen Frears, a filmmaker with a long career. He has often made films that appeal to middle-English audiences like The Queen, Philomena, and Victoria & Abdul. The Lost King was in keeping with those films because it was a safe, middle-of-the-road film with its visuals and storytelling. The most visually inventive moment in the film was when the performance of the Richard III play because it felt like watching a stage performance, especially when Richard III was killed on the battlefield.

The Lost King was a frustrating film because it played fast and loose with facts and it didn’t even tell a compelling story to compensate. The filmmakers undermined the message it was trying to send out.