Adorable yet slight is about the only way to describe Stephen Frears The Lost King staring Sally Hawkins as Philippa Langley. Langley became known for her part in the discovery and exhumation of Richard III who was discovered under a parking lot in Leicester 2012. Langley also participated in the resuscitation of Richard III’s reputation by exposing its most egregious reportings as Tudor propaganda. Hawkins plays Philippa as a mousy nervous sort of woman afflicted by chronic fatigue syndrome and a fantastic guilt complex. Her connection with Richard III is born out of her own feelings of being misunderstood, and underestimated. She loses out on a promotion early on in the film because of her illness. The conveyance of her relationship with the king is the most pleasant part of the picture. Richard III (Harry Lloyd) appears to Philippa as an interactive apparition in the body of the actor who played him on stage. Philippa is entranced, obsessed, and maybe even a little bit in love.
Aside from the cute fantasy romance The Lost King unsurprisingly contains zero surprises. The first act starts off interesting enough. The excited oddities of the Richard III Society are amusing but overused in the service of exposition. Such is no doubt helpful to those of us unfamiliar with the history, but it’s a lazy use of screentime all the same. The middle is narratively stagnant: filled with handwringing, phone calls, and prevarications over support and funding. Some genuine tension occurs during the archeological dig when it is unclear that the first skeleton uncovered is indeed the lost king, but that’s about it.
Sally Hawkins is about the only thing that makes this mediocre film watchable. Her performance as Philippa has a lived in texture. Philippa’s fight against her own insecurity, self-sabotage, and the role played by other’s perceptions of her, are tender and relatable. The Lost King is a good-natured film with nothing much to offer but an inspiring story and an above average performance by Hawkins. I would, however, expect a bit more from Frears in the screenplay department considering his prior credits.
Cine Obscura. 