The Lost King

No heroes wearing tights. No high action fight scenes. No car chases. No laser guns. Therefore, the people who should be watching this gem of a film, will not ... unfortunately. Sally Hawkins reminds us (again) that acting can be art. Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope, and Michael Jones deliver a touching screenplay. I loved this film. I was especially drawn to the plot line that we often unfairly define people by their physical shortcomings instead of their strength of character. We would all be better humans if more films such as "The Lost King" were made. See this film. And for criminy sakes, get your teenagers to watch it.

Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins) is a divorced middle-aged mother of two boys. Her boss sucks. Her ex-husband John Langley (Steve Coogan) has a girlfriend. Nobody treats her seriously. She becomes obsessed with Richard III and even has visions of the dead King. She is frustrated with the popular image of the King as an evil troll cemented by the Shakespeare play. She goes on a journey to find the Lost King and maybe of self-discovery.

Sally Hawkins is the Queen of the meek mousy woman with an inner fire. I can't think of another actress who is a better fit for this role. It's the classic underdog character and apparently it's a true story. The story is pretty simple and very standard. Sally makes this sing.

I went to see this movie on a whim not knowing much about it at all. I vaguely remembered the story appearing in the news some years ago. Sally Hawkins turns in a moving performance as Philippa Langley. The inclusion of her "visions" of Kind Richard could have been badly handled but here it lends both humour and pathos and its a nice touch. This movie was an unexpected pleasure and brought a tear to my eye more than once. Philippa's passion is inspiring and this is as much a story of the woman herself as it is about the discovery of Kind Richard.

It is clear that the writers take much creative licence with the story, which appears to take place in a matter on months but no doubt took years of research in reality. This kind of thing is to be expected with any dramatisation of reality. I'm sure the University of Leicester will have a lot more issue with the creative licence taken than I do as they don't come out of it looking at all good! However, the story is told from the perspective of Philippa Langley, and having since watched some real footage following the discovery of King Richards remains, it is clear to see she was sidelined and undermined and so it is nice to see her side of the story.

Recommended!!

Sally Hawkins turns in an enthusiastic performance here as the determined Philippa Langley. Separated from her husband (Steve Coogan), she is sort of at the end of her tether when she takes her young son to see a stage version of Shakespeare's "Richard III". Taken with the tragedy of that story, she joins the local "Ricardians" and soon determines that this particular historical figure has had a bit of a bad press, and so she sets out to try and track down the hitherto unidentified location of his corpse. It's based on a true story, so we know what actually happened but the drama offered here is still quite engaging as she has to convince the powers that be to allow her to dig up their car park, then try to fend off their collective claims of success before the ultimate battle to get the man buried with some semblance of his real life status and is enjoyable to watch, especially once her adventure begins in earnest. Then together with archaeological lead Mark Addy and some spiritual assistance from Harry Lloyd's spectral version of this final Plantaget King - who, along with his horse - seems keen to help her from the grave, this film moves along entertainingly. It certainly doesn't need to be seen at the cinema, and It's a bit of a slow burn to begin with, but overall I quite enjoyed it.

Not exactly 15 minutes of fame but I won a berth in the cathedral at Richard's reinterment. As a result I was very excited about this film and it really was a wonderful movie with Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan portraying these recent events with sensitivity and class. I liked the use of Richard's ghost to enhance the storytelling and the use of poetic licence did not damage the integrity of what happened. Visually, the sets were accurate and all the main characters are represented. Although I would liked to have seen the addition of Michael Ibsen who provided the DNA proof. But as a film about a topical story, it was a lovely satisfying movie.