The Death of Robin Hood Review: A Dark Finale

The film opens with Robin Hood, gaunt and caked in grime, crawling away from a skirmish that has left a dozen men dead in a ditch. He’s not robbing from the rich to give to the poor anymore - he’s just robbing, and the line between his own crimes and those of the Sheriff has blurred beyond recognition. Gravely injured and alone, he stumbles into the care of Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer), a nun with a past as complicated as his own. Her small, remote chapel becomes a fever dream of confession and reckoning.

As Robin’s body fights infection, his mind drifts through memories: Little John (Bill Skarsgård) as a loyal but disillusioned lieutenant; a leprous former ally (Murray Bartlett) who whispers truths Robin doesn’t want to hear; a boy named Arthur or Godwyn (Noah Jupe) whose death he can’t unsee. The narrative folds these flashbacks into the present-day struggle for survival. Can Robin Hood earn redemption before his body gives out? And does he even deserve it?

Sarnoski, who made a name with the quiet, gut-punching Pig, applies the same method here: long, unbroken takes, minimal score, and a script that trusts silence to do heavy lifting. The result is an action film that barely has action. The battle that opens the movie is the most kinetic sequence; after that, the violence comes in sharp, ugly bursts - a knife in the dark, a sadistic beating by a roadside. This is not a film about archery contests or stolen gold. It’s about the smell of rot and the weight of memory.

Jackman is phenomenal. He plays Robin as a man whose muscles have forgotten how to relax, whose eyes are bruised from within. His voice has dropped to a gravelly rasp, and when he speaks of Marian or the “merry” days, there is no nostalgia, only a hollow ache. Comer matches him beat for beat as Sister Brigid - practical, stern, yet carrying her own flicker of fire. Their scenes together are the film’s spine, a quiet tug-of-war between faith and cynicism.

The supporting cast is excellent but underused. Skarsgård’s Little John appears mostly in flashbacks, a giant forced to watch his leader’s moral decay. Bartlett’s Leper is a grotesque, unforgettable cameo - resembling a feverish prophet from a Bruegel painting. Jupe plays a dual role (Arthur and Godwyn) that feels like a narrative cheat on first viewing but gains power on reflection.

Where the film stumbles is in its pacing. The middle act drags dangerously, spending too long in Sister Brigid’s chapel while Robin hallucinates and whispers. Some viewers will find this meditative; others will check their watches. The final revelation - what truly happened to Arthur - lands with a thud that is more tragic than triumphant, which is the point, but may leave the audience feeling more drained than satisfied.

Pros

• Hugh Jackman’s raw, wounded performance anchors every scene
• Gorgeous, grimy cinematography that never romanticizes the medieval world
• A brave refusal to deliver a crowd-pleasing ending
• Jodie Comer brings warmth and steel to a role that could have been a cliché
• Thematic consistency: this is a film that follows through on its premise of damnation

Cons

• Pacing is slow to the point of testing patience in the second act
• Action is minimal and often brutally short
• Some flashback structure feels repetitive
• Characters like Little John are underserved by the runtime
• The tonal shift from “adventure” may alienate genre fans expecting a rousing finale

The Death of Robin Hood is not the movie its poster suggests. It is a slow, sorrowful character study that uses the legend as a mirror for decay - physical, moral, and spiritual. Jackman delivers what may be the finest performance of his career, and Sarnoski’s direction is unflinching. But the film’s deliberate pace and refusal to offer catharsis will leave many cold. It earns its TMDb score of 6.742: a work of admirable ambition that doesn’t always succeed in being watchable. Recommended for viewers who like their heroes broken, their forests muddy, and their redemption doubtful. For anyone else, your local multiplex is probably showing something with a lot more arrows and a lot less soul-searching.