Raise
your hand if you know Errol Flynn and can name at least a dozen of his
movies? Keep your hand up if you know what the phase ‘in like Flynn’
means and how it came about. Mmmm--not too many have their hand up and I
suspect they are either over 50 or are film addicts.
Okay
let’s ask about another actor--how many know who Kevin Kline is? Can
you name the movie he made his debut in? Can you name the movie he won
an Oscar for? Can you name the two shows he won Tonys for on Broadway?
I
would like to think that many more know Kline as a world wide respected
stage and movie actor but because he is basically scandal free I have a
feeling more people knew Flynn who wasn’t scandal free and, in fact,
had two trials broadcast on radio, television, the latter after 1950,
the newspapers and magazines. Possibly because the Internet wasn’t
around then he might be famous even today.
In
“The Last of Robin Hood” Kevin Kline portrays Errol Flynn during the
last two years of his life though Kline at 65 is older than Flynn by 15
years and is a lot thinner and neater looking. Due to alcohol Flynn was
quite a mess in 1959 when he died.
When Flynn
met, and seduced 15 year old virgin, Beverly Aadland, played by Dakota
Fanning, did he know her real age? Was Beverly really in love with Errol
or did his stardom blind her? Was her mother, Flo, played by Susan
Sarandon, someone to do anything, including acting as a front for the
old actor and her teenage daughter or was she the manipulative puppeteer
pulling the strings, to get her daughter the fame she, Flo, has always
wanted? Flo wrote a book, which the film seems to be based on, while
Beverly never spoke about Flynn after his death.
Kline
IS Flynn and could step into any role that the latter played on film
and, as Flynn did, could play John Barrymore when someone is ready to
give the latter his place in the sun.
Dakota
Fanning seems miscast, floundering in the role, though it could be due
to the directing and screenplay both done by Richard Glatzer and Wash
Westmoreland who sort of treat her as an afterthought.
Though
the film is about Flynn, and his affair with Beverly, Susan Sarandon
takes the movie away from everyone involved and, probably, would have
been better if it completely revolved around her as the
directors/writers seem too timid to bring what was sensational world
wide scandal to the screen.
The film takes place
in 1958 and 1959 with excellent production values and, I sort of
suspect, if you know the work of Todd Haynes, he had a hand in bringing
that look together