The premise of the movie is simple...what if all the stories about Robin Hood were lies? What if Robin Hood was just a thief and murderer who just liked robbing and killing? The plot of the movie is to just show us the final days or weeks of Robin's life. It's right there in the title. And it's also a metaphorical title. With the revelation that all the heroic stories of Robin Hood and his merry men are lies (robbing the rich to give to the poor), we're getting the death of the legend of Robin Hood as well. Maybe there's an interesting story in there somewhere, but if writer/director Michael Sarnoski was aiming for it, he missed. Missed badly.
The biggest hurdle the movie has to clear is that the entire audience knows Robin Hood as a hero. It's a tall order to convince people that Robin is actually an evil brigand and make a compelling story about that version of Robin Hood. Which is probably why the movie didn't really try. Oh, it gives a token effort every now and then. But it becomes painfully clear midway through the film that not even Sarnoski has much interest in going down that road.
That token effort is most apparent in the first act of the film. When a young, freezing lady stumbles across Robin (Jackman) in the hills and tells him that Robin protects these hills, Robin responds by telling her he knows Robin and all of the stories are lies. Then, he kills her in defense when she tries to stab him in his sleep. Turns out Robin killed her family and she wanted revenge. The next morning as he is burying her body, the camera pans out to reveal a great many graves. Turns out quite a few people have attempted the same revenge and lost.
Sometime later, Little John (Skarsgard) shows up asking for Robin's help. Stay with me on this - John killed a man named Edward, assumed Edward's identity, has been living on Edward's farm with a wife and daughter, and the family of the real Edward has come back and taken his wife and daughter hostage. I think John's wife was actually Edward's wife, maybe the daughter as well? It's really murky, but John seems to be genuinely fond of them. Anyway, this leads to two brutal and grisly action scenes and Robin nearly being killed. The point of these scenes is to establish how many people want Robin and friends dead, but also to assure the audience that Robin (and John) isn't all bad. He's just trying to help his friend get his family back. Is that so wrong?
When Robin awakes, he finds himself in a priory on a remote island, his injuries being tended to by prioress Sister Brigid (Comer). This is where the movie and Robin get really introspective. The final two acts feature zero action scenes and a heaping pile of soul-searching. Robin makes some noise about being haunted by all the killings, though not to Brigid whom he's told his name is Randolph. A local leper (Bartlett) occasionally pops up to mildly taunt Robin with wise-sounding advice as Robin rehabilitates his injuries. Little Margaret (John's daughter) ends up on the island, further softening Robin's hardened demeanor. Brigid masturbates in a cave. Robin agrees to tend to the fruit trees on the island and hunt game to help feed the local residents. What's that - repeat that one before the fruit trees? Yeah, that happened. This is an A24 movie; of course there are weird scenes like that.
That cave scene is a good example of the myriad half-baked things the plot throws at the audience without ever going back to explain them. The unexplained part isn't the self-service part, it's why in a cave? We're told that Brigid is an almost magical healer, implying something supernatural. There's an object in the cave that could be an altar and that scene made me think we were going to find out Brigid is a witch. Then again, in another scene, we find out she's widowed and her children are dead, so maybe that object is her dead husband's grave? Or her childrens'? I told you - A24 movies are weird.
There are several unanswered questions like that, but none of them lead to the audience becoming invested in the plot or the premise. We're just waiting to for the film's title to be fulfilled. You know - the death of Robin Hood. In a much smarter movie, Robin's past and lies converge in a climax that includes his mythical bow and arrow skills. That the leper plays a much more important role in the plot than faceless dispenser of proverbs and adages. That maybe John's daughter is the ultimate dispenser of justice instead of being a cheap plot device to manipulate the audience's view of Robin. That Brigid is far more than just a healer. Instead, we get an ending that isn't just unsatisfying, but an ending that undermines its own premise. If only it had just stuck with weird, we might have cared about the death of Robin Hood. Both literally and metaphorically.
Rating: Ask for twelve dollars back after you finish gushing over the film nerd stuff.
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