Robin and the Hoods
Good intentions are squandered on the altar of slapstick in a morality tale confronting the depravity of unscrupulous developers.
Not quite Braveheart: a cackling Naomie Harris (and orc)
Image courtesy of Sky Media
Robin and the Hoods need the reserves of all their courage and powers of sorcery to hold their territory in the dense woodland of the ‘Kingdom’. But they are increasingly outnumbered by knights on horseback who are determined to wrest the crown from Robin’s head. Then Robin’s forces suffer a major setback when the Hoods’ apothecary, Glen, is cut by a sword and ends up in a neck brace while Robin is roundly upbraided by her parents. Worse, Robin is forced to give up her bedroom to make way for the impending birth of her brother, while the woods at the end of the cul-de-sac are to be bulldozed to make way for a housing development…
If there’s one thing worse than being guilted into attending an amdram production, it’s being strong-armed into watching the school play of a friend’s precious little boy. Robin and the Hoods is full of good intentions, dealing with loyalty, friendship, the magic of childhood imagination, the old art of horseplay and unscrupulous bureaucracy. The problem is with the tone. Besides the meddlesome music and the low-rent ‘special’ effects, TV director Phil Hawkins has opted for the wide-eyed, open-mouthed school of acting. One can’t really blame the kids, as even an old pro like Naomie Harris is reduced to mugging shamelessly, as if she’s playing the witch in an end-of-pier panto. The whole thing seems to be pitched at a juvenile audience brought up on the black-and-white fare of the obsolete Children’s Film Foundation. Unfortunately, the young today have moved on to more sophisticated entertainment, spearheaded by Harry Potter and his claimants. The fun part of children in adult roles has potential (think Bugsy Malone), but similar territory of the young in knightly guise was carried off far more successfully in Joe Cornish’s The Kid Who Would Be King.
It's hard to imagine who could wring a second of enjoyment out of this embarrassment – besides the parents of the children involved. The cheap effects border on the Pythonesque in their crudity, which sit uneasily with the realism of other scenes involving drones and mobile phones. As Robin, Darcey Ewart survives with a modicum of dignity, although it’s Mark Williams as the local mayor who is the only cast member to mine an ounce of nuance. Which is a shame, as the story itself had the makings of something really quite unusual and relevant.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Darcey Ewart, Mark Williams, Naomie Harris, Gwendoline Christie, Gloria Ishikawa, Dexter Sol Ansell, Bruno Edgington-Gibson, Eddison Burch, Tom Goodman-Hill, Christine Bottomley, Morgana Robinson, Jessica Blake.
Dir Phil Hawkins, Pro Claudia Bluemhuber and Matt Williams, Screenplay Stuart Benson and Paul Davidson, Ph David Meadows, Pro Des Sivo Gluck, Ed Andrew Walton, Music James Everingham, Costumes Lance Milligan, Sound Robert Ireland, Acting Coach Jennifer Chippindale.
Silver Reel Productions/Future Artists Entertainment-Sky Cinema.
100 mins. UK/Ireland. 2024. UK Rel: 26 July 2024. Cert. U.
