Posts Tagged ‘Harry Lloyd’

THE LOST KING: 3 STARS. “warm and often funny feel-good flick.”

“The Lost King” is not the alternate title for Prince Harry’s recent tell-all book or a “Where’s Waldo” style game. It is the mostly true story of amateur historian Philippa Langley and her quest—some would call it an obsession—to find the remains of the last English king to die in battle, Richard “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” the III.

A lowkey dramedy, now playing in theatres, “The Lost King” stars Sally Hawkins as Langley, a divorced sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who, becomes inspired to research the much-maligned monarch’s life and death after taking in a stage production of Shakespeare’s royal tragedy.

She reads everything there is on his life, joins a group of eccentric Ricardians, argues with historians and even converses with a vision of the King himself (Harry Lloyd). She feels he was judged unfairly in life, and is determined to find his remains and give him a proper burial.

In the course of tireless study, she determines that the King’s resting place is in a nondescript carpark in Leicester, once the home of a Franciscan Friary. Through sheer force of will (and considerable fund-raising ability) she manages to convince the naysayers, including the Deputy Registrar of the local university, to OK an excavation.

In September 2012 Langley’s theories were proved correct and the remains of the long-lost king were uncovered. “He was right where I said he’d be,” she says with amazement as the university experts scramble to take credit for her work.

“The Lost King” is a lowkey “National Treasure” style movie. Langley’s quest to rehabilitate King Richard’s dastardly reputation isn’t nearly as action packed as the Nic Cage movies, but her deep dive into history brings with it a determination that makes up for the lack of thrills.

Instead, it’s a personal story about an underdog, who, despite her intelligence, is passed over for promotions at work and treated like an outsider by academia. Langley’s journey to expose the truth about a misunderstood monarch is a lightweight human tale of empathy given heft by a compelling performance from Hawkins. Her work is grounded in reality, even during the magic realism scenes when she turns to King Richard for guidance.

“The Lost King” is the kind of Brit pic that is a little too black-and-white in its portrayal of the condescending bullies who tried to derail the plucky Langley, but as a portrait of a person who refused to be trampled on, who finds her voice, it is a warm and often funny feel-good flick.

ANTHROPOID: 2 STARS. “attempts to personalize the heroic tale fall flat.”

“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare asked in “Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” True that, but at the movies a name can make or break a film.

“Anthropoid” is the obscure title of a new thriller starring Jamie “Fifty Shades of Grey” Dornan and Cillian Murphy as soldiers who try and assassinate SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. In real life their operation was called Operation Anthropoid, but in reel life the title sounds like a sci fi story. Will the title resonate with anyone who isn’t a World War II aficionado?

Set in 1942 Dornan and Murphy play Czechoslovakian operatives Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík who return to Nazi-occupied Prague to kill Heydrich, one of the main architects of the Holocaust. The pair hide out with a family, where the fetching daughter Marie (Charlotte Le Bon) catches Jan’s eye, while her feisty friend Lenka (Anna Geislerová) bonds with Josef personally and in sympathy with his dangerous mission. Their best laid plans are turned upside down, and pushed ahead a few days, when Heydrich’s schedule changes. Rushed, the plan (MILD SPOILER) does not quite go as planned and the men and their compatriots are forced to go into hiding in the basement of a local church as the Nazis mount a massive manhunt.

Much of “Anthropoid” is spent with Jan and Josef as they make their way to Prague and plan the assassination. Unfortunately director Sean Ellis’s attempts to personalize the heroic tale fall flat, with good actors doing bad accents and a stultifying pace that sucks much of the excitement out of what should have been a volatile, dramatic situation. It’s only after the assassination attempt that the character work of the first hour pays off. It’s a shame Ellis couldn’t spread the story’s intensity around a little more evenly.