In 2012 an amateur historian led a search which discovered the remains of King Richard III. Now she's being played by Sally Hawkins.
After being looked over for a promotion at work, Phillippa Langley attends a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. At a crossroads in her life, she dives deep into her own research about one of the UK's most controversial monarchs.
Her research eventually leads her to a carpark in Leicester, where she leads an archaeological dig which, unlike most digs, actually finds something.
I vaguely remember hearing about this story in 2012 when it happened, but other than that, I knew very little about the dig or really anything about Richard III, for that matter.
The film does a great job of communicating why Richard III was such an unpopular king and why history hasn't treated him too kindly. Really the true story is The Lost King's greatest strength.
There's been a couple of movies this year which are based on incredible true stories; Operation Mincemeat comes to mind about an insane plan to trick the Nazis in World War II. Like that film, this is a perfectly serviceable film which simply has to be watchable to walk away thinking, "wow, what a crazy story".
The Lost King isn't just a phoned-in, lacklustre film relying on its story though. Rather than just a straight retelling of facts, the character of Richard III has quite a large part in the story, appearing to Langley throughout the film like a conscience telling her to keep going.
Sally Hawkins is reliably great as ever, it takes a strong actress to convince me to care about some old dead king, but Hawkins brings such a level of honest desperation to the role you can't help but want to see her succeed.
Steve Coogan plays her separated husband with just barely enough charm that you can see why they were together in the first place but he is more than enough of a d*** that you can see why they split up.
The Lost King is a great starting point to introduce you to a fascinating true story. You'll want to do some research of your own when you go home, and maybe you, too can find the remains of some disgraced dead guy.
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