Rent The Lost King (2022)

Disappointing - The Lost King review by PD

As someone with an interest in Richard III, and one who followed the car park discovery with great interest, I felt I had to see this despite the lukewarm reviews it got in the press. Unfortunately, the reviews were right and this terribly slight piece does neither Richard nor grave-hunter Philippa Langley any justice at all. The film doesn’t ever find its tone, always ricocheting between attempts at the solemn and the downright sentimental (a horribly intrusive portentous score doesn't help). Whatever historical interest it might have had is subsumed in a trite soap-opera involving Langley's relationship with her husband (a really irritating Steve Coogan) and two sons (also unbearable - you want to chuck them in the river). And whilst the battle between Langley and the academics at Leicester University (who, this says, tried to steal all the glory for themselves) is quite a potentially interesting subject, reducing the latter to little more than pantomime villains means that, whatever the truth of it, it's very hard to take seriously, particularly given an annoying tendency to gender stereotype throughout. Meanwhile, the conceit of having Richard himself appear at various turns might have worked, but sadly the writers simply don't have the skill or inclination to make him much more than a brooding presence, and his get up is so cheap it looks straight out of one of those 'Horrible histories' things. Sally Hawkins does quite a lot with a painfully thin script, playing Philippa as prickly and stubborn but also someone who is somehow in search of herself, but on the whole it's very disappointing indeed, I'm afraid.

Very disappointing film, with a flimsy twee plot - watch a documentary on this story instead - The Lost King review by PV

I was ;looking forward to watching this film, which I had not realised existed - after watching a superb TV documentary about this discovery of the bones of Richard III, I was delighted to find out there was a film about it too.

I needn't have bothered. It is truly awful. I could not stand it any more and turned off halfway through - did not make it to the end of the battle (a bit like King Richard III at Bosworth then eh?)

I am not a fan of Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan can be uber-irritating. BUT they are not the problem here/ The woeful script is - it misfires all the way.

1 star