A Review of “Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)”

 

Those Who Wish Me Dead is directed by Taylor Sheridan who is known for writing Sicario and Hell or High Water. He also directed Wind River which is an amazing movie. So hearing that he is directed and writing a new movie with Angelina Jolie as the main lead sounds like a recipe for success. The premise is “Still reeling from the loss of three lives, Hannah (Angelina Jolie) is a smokejumper who’s perched in a watchtower high above the Montana wilderness. She soon encounters Connor (Finn Little), a skittish boy who’s bloodied, traumatized and on the run in the remote forest. As Hannah tries to bring him to safety, she’s unaware of the real dangers to follow: two relentless killers hunting Connor, and a fiery blaze consuming everything in its path”. So was one hell of a fire or a smouldering mess?

Firstly, all the actors do a great job in their respective roles. Angelina Jolie gives a great performance as a person with PTSD. She delivers some dry charisma to a person who seems fed up with everything perfectly but is also able to deliver those emotional moments effectively as well. Finn Little who plays the kid is not a terrible kid actor, thank god. He felt really believable as a scared kid and was also able to give an emotional performance as well. The antagonist played by Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult are also great. Aidan is still able to give that creepy yet charming performance while Nicholas was quite surprisingly scary near the end of the movie. The supporting cast also all do a fine job with Jon Bernthal still being charismatic and lovable in his role. The real stand out has got to be Medina Senghore who plays Jon’s wife in the movie. She is the real badass and the real star of this movie.

The biggest praise has got to be the cinematography by Ben Richardson. There are some gorgeous shots here that feel like it’s out of a painting which is partially thanks to where it is shot. Ben does a great job with the lighting especially when the fire starts to come into play. He illustrates fire in a way that makes it look quite beautiful despite the situation of the characters. One thing that is brought back from Sicario is the wonderful gun shoot out scenes. They are gritty, grounded and great to watch still as it feels real. While it isn’t an action movie, there is a great shoot out scene between two characters that are incredibly tense.

Nevertheless, the plot and characters aren’t that good. The antagonist who is trying to kill the kid is shown at the beginning to be ruthless. Afterwards, they seem to forget that they were ruthless and continue to do dumb decisions that involve sparing people or forgetting about certain people. One of the antagonists even says that “they will kill anyone who sees their face” but then they don’t, which makes the line seem stupid. They also start a fire as a diversionary tactic but it didn’t feel like there was much benefit to doing it. There is also a really dumb part in the story where Hannah (Angelina Jolie) and Connor (Finn Little) leave the watchtower to trek to town and even run past a field getting strike by lightning. However, they decide to go back to the watchtower because of a raging fire even though there are killers after them!

My biggest gripe has got to be the plot device that the entire story is revolved around, what Connor’s dad discovered. The antagonist work for some evil group and that group wants them to kill Connor’s dad because he discovered something about them. The thing is, we never do find out what that is. It just feels like a giant insult that we don’t even find out what it was considering the whole story is revolved around it. Likewise, the ending doesn’t even completely resolve everything and feels a little empty. We don’t know what is going to happen to our characters from now on or what the evil group is going to do since they are still functioning.

Overall, the biggest reason why I liked Taylor Sheridan is not here. The writing is very weak and probably the weakest he has done. Still, if you can get past the weak writing then there is a somewhat enjoyable action thriller movie with impressive visuals. Just watch it for Medina Senghore, trust me she is the best part of this movie.