Robin Hood effort in futility

A revisionist spin on the oft-repeated legend of Robin Hood, this film is dark and grim and might find it hard to achieve enlightenment at the box office.

We’ve seen Robin Hood as embodied by Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, Cary Elwes, etc. And they all were decades younger and swashbuckling heroes to boot. This one is a rather radical version. Here, the hero is an all-out anti-hero.

This Robin Hood is not the romantic hero of the folk legend who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He is aged, well past his prime, and grappling with a history of unspeakable crimes. This film dares to suggest that Robin Hood had an insatiable lust for bloodshed. This is a story of reflection following relentless savagery.

The year is 1247. The medieval setting sets the tone for rather brutish shenanigans. The familiar tale based on a centuries-old epic English ballad has been subverted. Hugh Jackman, sporting a flowing grey mane and a straggly beard, plays the outlaw living alone in exile during the winter of his life, minus his merry men and maid, Marian.

According to him, all the romantic myths surrounding the legend are fake and it’s his viciousness that has made him a target for vendetta-seekers from all over England.

A spent force, he is a man awaiting judgement.

After a nightmarish attack, Robin Hood is left to die but Little John (Bill Skarsgård) manages to carry him to safety. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a priory run by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) on a small island. His wounds are treated and he begins healing. Little John’s young daughter, Margaret (Faith Delaney), is also there, and so is a leper (Murray Bartlett), who becomes his unlikely friend. While in the process of healing, Robin gets to be a mentor to Margaret and young Arthur (Noah Jupe), who is suffering from an injury that cost him an eye.

Eventually, Robin Hood’s final act allows him a chance at salvation.

The narrative begins with extreme violence rendered in graphic, gory fashion and then settles down to a quieter, calmer tone.

There’s not much dialogue to play with — just a few moments of lucidity that could pass off as philosophical ruminations. The film tends to be un-enlivening and would be considered a tedious slog by most.

The pace is slow, the bleakness of the narration drags you down and the medieval setting lacks vibrancy.

Not much happens in the film. The colour palette is pale and gloomy, the sound design is deliberately set to a harsh atmospheric tone and the background score exacerbates the overwhelming gloom in the film. Jackman’s performance may be sincere and intense, but the character he essays has nothing interesting to reveal.

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski’s attempt to imbue this tale with greater intimacy fails to draw us in. The attempt at building up the atmospherics may be commendable, but the fact that there’s nothing to alleviate the bleakness renders it as an artistic work that is rather futile and unsatisfactory.

This revisionist take lacks profundity, fails to sustain interest and leaves you exhausted, thanks to its trying indulgent runtime of 123 minutes.