THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD

Here is the hard part first. THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD is well made, and its second half is genuinely touching — a murderous man reaching for redemption, befriending a healing nun and fathering an orphaned girl. There is Scripture in it, and prayer, and a real ache for grace.

But two things make this one a no. The first half is savagely violent, showing Robin's brutality in bloody detail. And the ending implicitly promotes physician-assisted suicide — the movie's fatal turn, however gently it's framed. That's why Movieguide rates it excessive and unacceptable.

You can admire craft and still refuse a conclusion. This film asks you to sit with an act Scripture never permits us to bless, and it dresses that act in the language of peace. Redemption and self-destruction don't belong in the same breath, and here they end up there.

So our answer is plain: skip it. The good in the middle can't redeem the ending, and the violence alone puts it out of family reach.

This is not the Robin Hood of legend. Here he's an aging, graying outlaw (Hugh Jackman) who freely admits he's a murderer, not a hero — a man with a long trail of enemies behind him.

His old friend Little John comes asking for help against his wife's angry relatives, and the errand goes terribly wrong. Gravely wounded, Robin is carried to a rural nunnery run by Sister Bridget (Jodie Comer), a renowned healer with a tragic past. Hiding his name, he begins to heal — in body, and perhaps in something deeper. What that costs him is the movie's real story.

Three stars, and they're honestly earned. The filmmaking is strong, and the movie grows better as it goes — the tender second half, with Robin mending under Sister Bridget's care and becoming a father figure to little Margaret, is the most touching thing here. That's where the craft shows.

The first half is another matter: relentlessly, brutally violent as Robin fends off Little John's enemies. And the whole thing pivots on a sudden, unexplained twist that fulfills the title.

The source is drawn from two old ballads, one 17th-century and one 18th-century — but in both, Robin remains a hero. This movie deliberately unmakes that. The result is skillful and, in stretches, moving. It's also built toward a conclusion the craft can't rescue.

For a stretch, this film reaches toward something true. Its second half carries a strong Christian, moral thread: positive references to Jesus, to Scripture, to prayer. A woman quotes Jesus from John 14 — "My Father's house has many rooms... I am going there to prepare a place for you." A great and murderous sinner begins to find relief from his guilt by befriending a nun and mentoring an orphaned girl. That's a real picture of a soul turning toward grace.

Then the ending undoes it. The film implicitly promotes physician-assisted suicide — framed, the source notes, as taking responsibility for one's sins as death draws near. But dressing self-destruction in the language of repentance doesn't make it repentance. Life is God's to give and to take; our part is to entrust ourselves to Him, not to end the story on our own terms.

We'll add one editorial conviction, stated once: Movieguide strongly opposes the fashion of applying revisionist history to heroes and legends like Robin Hood, unmaking the good the old stories celebrated. This film does exactly that — turning the outlaw of legend into a self-confessed murderer.

The ache underneath it all is the ache for a home beyond this one. The film quotes it without trusting it: "In my Father's house are many rooms... I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). The answer to guilt and death is that promise — not a chosen exit.

There's real skill here, and a middle stretch that genuinely moves toward grace. But a brutal first half and an ending that quietly blesses physician-assisted suicide put this beyond what we can recommend. So our answer holds: skip it. Looking for something to watch together instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.