2013’s Philomena was a moving and gently funny account of one woman’s real-life hunt for a lost son. The screenplay, by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, went on to be nominated for an Oscar. The creative team behind that film (Coogan and Pope, plus director Stephen Frears) reunite here for another real-life search of a missing person, only this time, it’s for the 700-year-old skeleton of Richard III — if not with quite as much emotional poignancy as their last get-together.
As the history nerd who hunts for the plantagenet King’s remains, Sally Hawkins puts in a typically brittle-yet-bruising performance: her character struggles with her lack of confidence or academic rigour, but she makes a convincing case for why Richard III perhaps deserves better than the slightly shameful legacy left for him by Shakespeare. He was — at least, according to the protestations of the geeky Richard III society — an advocate for the poor, who championed the concept of innocence until proven guilty, and established a printing press.
It's all played nicely by its cast, Sally Hawkins especially.
It makes for a light, cosy history lesson, and there’s much to admire here: Coogan and Pope’s screenplay is warmly written, propped up by a pleasingly jaunty Hitchcockian score from Alexandre Desplat, and the playful fantasy flourish of including Richard himself as a twinkly-eyed apparition, played by Harry Lloyd.
But the film sometimes struggles to rise above the low stakes of its story. Compared to the emotional oomph of Philomena — the heartbreaking pathos of a mother who never got to meet her son — The Lost King feels a little thin by comparison; perhaps the most dramatic scene comes, genuinely, at a Leicester City Council planning meeting.
It’s painted rather broadly, too. Coogan’s character laments that we love to see history as heroes and villains, and that most of us are simply somewhere in between — yet his script doesn’t quite follow that rule, depicting the University of Leicester as cackling, self-interested villains who steal Phillippa’s thunder. (The actual events of what took place have since been disputed by the university.)
The final set piece, taking place in a Leicester car park, won’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who watched the news in 2012. But it is all nicely played by its cast, Hawkins especially, and if it leaves you reaching for the history books, perhaps The Lost King has done its job.