CinemaSerf

"Robin" (Hugh Jackman) has entered into a sort of solitary retirement, living from a cave and spurning - or worse - any companionship. Then his old pal from the green wood, "Little John" (Bill Skarsgård) turns up seeking his help to reclaim a farm he stole from it's rightful owner years ago so he can reunite with his wife and daughter. That goes smoothly enough, but they don't reckon on the power of old grudges and barely has the sun set on their murderous achievements than the whole place is afire and the wounded "Robin" has been conveyed to an island priory run by "Sister Brigid" (Jodie Comer) and a leper (Murray Bartlett). Prudence dictates that he'd best assume a pseudonym and so "Randolph" is left to recover under her tender cares, but when a young girl arrives, the leper delivers him some home truths and then the enigmatic young "Arthur" (Noah Jupe) arrives with an eye injury, we realise that grievances run deep and that his secret cannot last for long. Indeed, can he? Now this is as far a cry from Errol and Kevin Costner as you're ever going to get, but that needn't have mattered if it had focused a little better on a more substantial story. Instead, it immerses us in an admittedly plausible environment of mud and dirt and brutal weaponry, but it doesn't explain just how we got from the acclaimed "Robin Hood" of legend to this depressed and introspective, almost thuggish, character who appears to have a surfeit of baggage and whose friend "John" will stop at nothing to obtain a stale loaf of bread. Comer seems to have run for cover a little here taking refuge in her early scenes from "The White Princess" (2017) and the second half of the film, including the rather insubstantial contribution from the underused Jupe, descends into something altogether too melancholic. Jackman does impress though, confirming his long established versatility, and there is no doubt that this illustrates a far more realistic Plantagenet England than Hollywood or Pinewood ever have, but in the end I felt it gloomy, plodding and crying out for Enya to come and sing us an haunting ballad. I would still suggest watching on a big screen though, the photography and production design are stylish and really do benefit from a cinema screening, but otherwise I left disappointed.