The Lost King (2022)
The Lost King is an entertaining and eventually bittersweet and touching feelgood film by Stephen Frears, about Philippa Langley, who made finding the remains of King Richard III her life's goal.
Stephen Frears has always been one of my favorite filmmakers. He’s made great films like The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons and Dirty Pretty Things, to name but a few.
Together with Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, Frears previously made the film Philomena, about a lady played by Judi Dench who later in life went looking for the son who had been taken from her in her younger years by the Catholic church.
The Lost King is cut from a similar cloth. The fact based story is about Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), who in her mid-forties, feels stuck in a rut. After seeing a performance of Richard III with her two sons, she becomes obsessed with the former King of England, who partly thanks to Shakespeare's play, has build up a rather awful reputation throughout the centuries.
This is the crux of the film. Philippa also feels misunderstood, at work and in her personal life. When she says that Richard was a person ‘unfairly judged in life’ we understand that she’s also talking about herself.
It’s probably fair to say that Philippa is suffering from some kind op depression but it would be unfair to say it’s what defines her. She is simply looking for meaning in life, when the regular things (work, family, etc) have failed to satisfy her.
So Philippa decides to quietly quit her job and develop herself as an amateur historian. She does some diligent detective work in search of Richard's never-found bones, in order to bolster his reputation and grant him a well-deserved state funeral.
Along the way she encounters both supporters and opponents, but it should not come as a surprise that the latter category mainly consists of men. While the academic world in general first rejects her and then tries to take credit for Philippa’s hard work.
Hawkins is superb as Philippa and she gets able support from Coogan as her ex-husband, who starts out thinking this is another one of Philippa’s crazy ideas, but slowly gravitates towards her as she progresses towards towards her goal.
There is also Harry Lloyd, who plays Richard on stage and then appears in Philippa’s life as well.
Frears cleverly mixes reality with fantasy in a way that works and gives a feminist touch to an entertaining and at times moving feel-good film. I loved it.