Movie Review - Those Who Wish Me Dead

Director: Taylor Sheridan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult, Jake Weber, Tyler Perry

Description: A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by two assassins (Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen) in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert (Angelina Jolie) tasked with protecting him – and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.

Review: It’s been quiet around Angelina Jolie for a while now, but in “Those Who Wish Me Dead”, sje takes on the role of the tough Hannah Faber. Hannah suffered quite a trauma while working as a firefighter, where she witnessed a number of people being consumed by flames. As a result, she is, to say the least, a bit destructive: a real adrenaline junkie who performs all kinds of stunts to get a kick out of it and consumes large amounts of alcohol. During the new ‘fire season’ in the vast American forest, firefighters are each assigned their own lookout, in order to assess whether a fire is about to break out somewhere.
Meanwhile, you see how two men break into a house and coldly kill the family living there and blow up their house. Owen sees the images on television ans is shocked. He immediately leaves the house with his son Connor for the only man he trusts, the sheriff in Hannah’s town: his brother-in-law Ethan. But he will never arrive, because the same two killers are after him now. His son Connor manages to escape and ends up finding Hannah, who will do anything to save this boy.
It all sounds exciting, but unfortunately nothing really comes off well. Yes, Angelina Jolie does a great job of portraying the role of the hurt power woman. And Finn Little, who plays Connor does a fine job as well. However, the film jumps around so much that none of the storylines are given time to develop properly. Hannah gets a little background, but that’s it. And the story of Ethan and his pregnant wife is overshadowed too. I would have liked to know more about them.
“Those Who Wish Me Dead” is a film hard to put in one genre. It is a thriller, certainly, but also has characteristics of a disaster movie, as well as a drama piece. Angelina Jolie plays her role with total dedication, but it’s the script that fails. The movie is fairly short for the story they want to tell and the characters they want us to relate to. It is still entertaining in a way, but leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions.

Rating: 2,5/ 5