For some reason, I had it in my head that The Death of Robin Hood was set for a November release, which after having seen it would make sense. This is a film that is made for award season with out feeling like “Oscar bait” in the best of ways from the get-go in a telling of the title character that has been rarely (if ever) told in the manner that it is.
Hugh Jackman plays Robin, who lives his life in the wilderness as he pores over his life choices and the way they have been portrayed. When he chooses “one last” caper (which goes HORRIBLY wrong), he winds up in a priory on a remote island in the care of Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) … and that is just the first twenty or so minutes of a two-hour-three-minute run time.
Writer/director Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) shoots this entire film on 35mm, and it shows. The mood this script calls for demands the level of grain and depth the format brings, making the darks darker, the brights just foggy enough to keep the intensity of this story (and I know I have used that term a lot lately, but that just seems to be the types of films I have seen lately) intact all the way through.
Jackman seems to be on a run of films where he tells the end of his characters’ stories, and I am fully here for it. Just give this guy every award for the rest of ever and I will not complain. I felt the conflict and pain he put forth in each and every scene as even his recouperation becomes complicated in a story that has a number of twists and turns that almost defines the phrase “hold my beer”. He is also part of a cast that includes Bill Skarsgard as a man from his past, The White Lotus standout Murray Bartlett as another patient that helps Robin confront who he really is, Jodie Comer as the sister who nurses him back to health, and Hamnet’s Faith Delaney as a girl that unintentionally throws a monkey wrench in Robin’s plans but is crucial to his story’s resolution (and absolutely CRUSHES IT, by the way).
Composer (and vocalist) Jim Ghedi crafts a score that haunts and gets the blood pumping at the exact right moments with a couple of original songs that I cannot imagine the film being the same without. Every piece of visual, audio, and talent on the screen is used to absolute perfection in a film that exceeded the bar I set which was already high. The Death of Robin Hood may be a little too artsy for those that prefer more mainstream storytelling (this borderlines on Shakespearian, and I mean that as a high compliment), but for those that enjoy this type of filmmaking that may not lean into the action that other versions of this story have brought to the big screen, this is a must-see that needs to be acknowledged at the end of 2026.