Now in 2013 Steve Coogan (long-time idol of mine in every aspect of his career) collaborated with Jeff Pope on a script following the true story of a woman whose story had yet to be told on a nationwide scale and whose perseverance against struggles was heart-warming and sensationally effecting, this film was directed very well by Stephen Frears. This film was the great Philomena. Well now in 2022, Coogan and Pope have collaborated once more to tell a true story of a woman in a fight against the system following her dreams, once again directed by Stephen Frears, with The Lost King, the true story of Phillippa Langley and her almost bizarre quest to find the body of Richard III. It is with regret however that the formula that made Philomena such an excellent success, has a somewhat thornier road to greatness with this film, that in the end doesn’t succeed in any way as much as this trio’s previous effort.

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Again, as with Philomena, the effort is clear and almost valiant in intention, but in actual delivery where that film is brilliant in oh so many ways, The Lost King falls at every hurdle near the end and is built upon a pretty lame device to help the narrative going. Frears directs the film and does a fine job, but again there just isn’t anything here to shout about. By the time the end comes along there is a few intriguing montage sequences, but moments of triumph are granted by the viewer with only a slight excitement and the whole journey of the story seems to be built on very little interest at all. As with any stranger than fiction story, Coogan and Pope do a nice job at doling out all the elements that one would never believe to be true, and yet are and as a chronicling of the truth, of course this film is interesting for the most part. At the end of the day I just didn’t feel that invested in the story of this woman; Phillippa Langley. Her admiration and striving for this mission were thoughtful and easy to root for, but just nothing I could ever wholly invest myself in. Alexandre Desplat’s score is sensationally good  really and gives the whole story an air of grandeur that at its core it fails to find in its actual overall film-making. I guess you could even say the score elevates the film, but not really to such an extensive level of greatness.

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Sally Hawkins as our Langley is her terrific brilliant self, however as aforementioned has a character whose arc is bizarre at times and at times even easy to root against. Hawkins makes this woman believable and truthful and we do like her, because Hawkins is so great when she’s good. But again, it just sort of felt like an empty exercise. Coogan when on-screen is his dry and excellent self, but never given too much to do beyond a lame arc that could be seen a million miles away. Harry Lloyd is rather good as Richard III, but the whole device to have his ghost as a Wilson the Volleyball figure for Langley to talk with and commiserate with feels forced and even if based on truth, seems like a lazy plot device and contrivance. Everybody is working so hard to make this film the next great Brit sleeper hit it feels, and everybody clearly has an engagement with the material, however the piece as a whole is just not the interesting thing it may believe itself to be.

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The Lost King is never lost in its intentions and is a 5/10 film that tells its story simply and effectively. Is the story all that interesting beyond its initial premise? Not especially, nor does it have the narrative arc to make it overly compelling. The Lost King is a fine film, but ranks very low in the realms of Coogans, Hawkins, Popes or Frears work. There is a little glance at intrigue, but not enough to propel a running time for a film. This is an interesting article that cannot be justified into feature length. It is with regret that the most interesting elements are nowhere near enough to keep one enthralled, no matter how hard those involved work and succeed to make this story interesting, they can’t succeed in making it astounding or worth returning to any time soon.

P.S. Stephen Frears may very well be my most divisive director of all time, to no extent is there a director whose films I hate I absolutely despise and whose films I love I absolutely whole heartedly adore. I guess it’s the infrequency that makes it clearer to me how divisive he is. To go from Dangerous Liaisons to a Victoria & Abdul, to go from High Fidelity to a Mary Reilly.

-         - Thomas Carruthers