I found this to be an enjoyable and engaging movie, Until I watch "Richard III - The King in the Car Park" documentary from Channel 4 which pretty much dispelled many of the dramas of this movie and turned the overall effect of 'The Lost King' in to a bad after taste, luckily replaced by the uplifting good spirits of the documentary.
The movie felt it necessary to replace an interesting and captivating actual story with unnecessary fictional 'dramatic' elements, which quite clearly from the documentary which was made at the time the actual events, never happened.
We get to see Philippa in real life being a little bit dramatic herself but we also get to see her being front and center of the show, not sidelined in anyway by the evil university or other figures. She's right there on the panel at the press conference 'The Lost King' says she was shut out of, she's right at the front of the press interviews, not sidelined by media grabbing other figures. She's treated respectfully by all parties (at least in every interaction we see on camera in the documentary) and her slightly bonkers emotional responses are handled with grace and understanding, in sharp contrast to this film which paints the other parties poorly.
And it's just so utterly unnecessary, turning a real feel good story of personal trump supported by many into a feel bad story of bitterness and rivalry. The documentary presenter Simon Farnaby who is by Phillippa's side being supportive and tolerant through the actual events captured in the documentary has been completely removed from the film's narrative, replaced by Steve Coogan's character who we never see in the documentary.
I'm not saying that 'The Lost King' is not a moving and entertaining film, but in hindsight and with the benefit of an actual document of the events it's much less of a story than the real thing, and it diminishes the achievements of the people involved including Phillippa's and I wonder how the other good willed people who put their effort behind Phillippa's mission feel about being portrayed as bad self-serving people just for a little bit of Hollywood antagonist fiction.
It is deeply ironic that a story about the misrepresentation of the legacy of a slain King should be portrayed in a misrepresenting story of the events that lead to his discovery and indeed the inconvenient revelations of the discovery.
In the documentary we see clearly that Richard's spine is massively S shaped, there's no doubt about it. In this film they say it was slightly curved because it is an inconvenient detail to the re-framing of history that the film makers wish to show. Propaganda if you will.
This film leaves me feeling conflicted about the whole story and doubting the benefit of its existence. I think it does more harm than good and wish that someone better had decided to tell this story in film. It's not a bad film, but it is a bad representation of real, positive, and uplifting events. It comes across as the worst aspects of Hollywood.
Everything doesn't have to be conflict.
Why can't they just tell a good story as it is without lying to us?
