Hugh Jackman gives a career-best performance in the new film “The Death of Robin Hood”. Jackman plays an aging Robin who, unlike his heroic tales, is a murderer, thief, and outright bad individual.
Tales of his legendary deeds have only further angered him as he has seen his legend grow to mythic proportions, and the truth has become lost in a fog of inaccuracies about him and his deeds.
Growing weary of dispatching those who have come to avenge many of the countless people he has killed over the years, Robin reluctantly joins Edward (Bill Skarsgard, who the world knows as “Little John” as he attempts to rescue his wife and family. Edward attempted to leave his past behind and raise a family on a farm, only to see the landowners take his wife and daughter and leave him for dead.
Robin and Edward exact a revenge but trigger a violent retaliation that leaves Robin gravely wounded. In a desperate act, Edward takes Robin to a remote island under the care of Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) to recover.
Although the process is long, Robin begins to recover but hides his identity as he grows closer to Brigid and the residents of his sanctuary despite keeping his distance.
When fate brings Edward’s daughter into the mix and indicates his past is still out there, Robin must come to grips with his past, present and future as well as those who have come to be part of his life.
The opening of the film is dark, violent, and loud to help illustrate that this is not the Robin and his band of Merry Men that has been depicted countless times before. This is a world of death, violence, and lonely isolation for individuals who kill without remorse and are consumed by their past as they are unable to escape their actions, and the resulting consequences only make matters worse.
Jackman disappears into the performance so completely that you forget it is him, and the long beard and hair only help to add to the character. This is a broken man who wants to rest and no longer seeks to avoid death. Yet he is driven by his past and finds himself unable to fully let go. It is a deeply engaging performance that I hope is remembered come awards time.
Jodie Comer does an amazing job in a role that blends strength and sympathy to create a fully developed character that is often lacking in films of this type.
The visuals of the landscape show the duality of harshness and beauty that make up Robin’s world, and this is a film that fans of the legend may at first find a difficult yet ultimately rewarding new take on the legend.
4 stars out of 5
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