The Lost King Review | Movie
Phillippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), a lonely divorcee who suffers from ME, turns into secretly obsessive about the legacy of King Richard III (Harry Lloyd), who seems to her in visions. With the reluctant help of her ex-husband John (Steve Coogan), she begins the hunt for his misplaced stays — assembly scepticism and sexism alongside the best way.
2013’s Philomena was a transferring and gently humorous account of 1 lady’s real-life hunt for a misplaced son. The screenplay, by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, went on to be nominated for an Oscar. The inventive group behind that movie (Coogan and Pope, plus director Stephen Frears) reunite right here for an additional real-life search of a lacking particular person, solely this time, it’s for the 700-year-old skeleton of Richard III — if not with fairly as a lot emotional poignancy as their final get-together.
Because the historical past nerd who hunts for the plantagenet King’s stays, Sally Hawkins places in a usually brittle-yet-bruising efficiency: her character struggles together with her insecurity or tutorial rigour, however she makes a convincing case for why Richard III maybe deserves higher than the marginally shameful legacy left for him by Shakespeare. He was — at the very least, in line with the protestations of the geeky Richard III society — an advocate for the poor, who championed the idea of innocence till confirmed responsible, and established a printing press.
It is all performed properly by its forged, Sally Hawkins particularly.
It makes for a lightweight, cosy historical past lesson, and there’s a lot to admire right here: Coogan and Pope’s screenplay is warmly written, propped up by a pleasingly jaunty Hitchcockian rating from Alexandre Desplat, and the playful fantasy flourish of together with Richard himself as a twinkly-eyed apparition, performed by Harry Lloyd.
However the movie generally struggles to rise above the low stakes of its story. In comparison with the emotional oomph of Philomena — the heartbreaking pathos of a mom who by no means bought to satisfy her son — The Misplaced King feels somewhat skinny by comparability; maybe probably the most dramatic scene comes, genuinely, at a Leicester Metropolis Council planning assembly.
It’s painted somewhat broadly, too. Coogan’s character laments that we like to see historical past as heroes and villains, and that the majority of us are merely someplace in between — but his script doesn’t fairly comply with that rule, depicting the College of Leicester as cackling, self-interested villains who steal Phillippa’s thunder. (The precise occasions of what befell have since been disputed by the college.)
The ultimate set piece, happening in a Leicester automobile park, received’t come as an excessive amount of of a shock to anybody who watched the information in 2012. However it’s all properly performed by its forged, Hawkins particularly, and if it leaves you reaching for the historical past books, maybe The Misplaced King has finished its job.
Warmly humorous and traditionally curious, Sally Hawkins’ spirited, humane efficiency helps overcome a slight lack of dramatic pressure.
