A young boy witnesses a murder and is hunted by two assassins in
the Montana wilderness, while a forest fire threatens to kill them all. ACTION
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Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Written by Michael Koryta, Charles Leavitt, Taylor Sheridan Starring Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Finn Little, Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult, Medina Senghore, Jake Weber, Tyler Perry Based on the novel by Michael Koryta |
Recently, I have really been enjoying what Taylor Sheridan has been putting out. Movie-wise, he has written both Sicario and Hell or High Water. Both of which are exceptional examples of his style of the Neo-Western. And, on the TV side, he has been behind the addicting Yellowstone. So, seeing as how I’ve enjoyed his work so far, I was pretty excited at his newest effort, Those Who Wish Me Dead. Based off the trailer, it looked to follow in his vein of believable, nuanced characters mixed with some brutal, violent action scenes. Well, after seeing it, I got some of that. Just not all of it.
In this film, we see superstar Angelina Jolie return to the action genre, of which she’s not exactly a stranger to. Before I get into that, I do want to commend her on a really good performance here. And that honestly goes to the rest of the cast as well. Everyone here does a great job in their respective roles. But, and this is the main problem with the film, they all feel incredibly underutilized. To the point where I’m not behind any of the relationships established. As for Jolie returning to action, well, she doesn’t do a whole lot. She spends most of the film thinking over a prior incident, which is never fully developed, and running through the Montana wilderness to get a kid to safety. The other thing killing this film is when the two storylines finally converge, not much really happens. Again, it feels undeveloped. I expected more considering Sheridan’s name was attached to this. Instead, I get a film where the two storylines never really mesh well together and everything about it just feels underdeveloped. It’s a shame too considering the seriously talented cast attached to this. Regardless, I at least got season four of Yellowstone to look forward to. |
Those Who Wish Me Dead sports a talented ensemble, but it left me wanting more. Why is any of this happening? Who sent the assassins and what are they after? What was Connor's dad involved in and what did he know? So many plot threads get left to flap in the wind while the film constantly shifts focus, from Connor and his dad to Jolie's dark past as a firefighter to the wildfire itself. There's never enough time to get attached to anything before we move on to the next thing. Taylor Sheridan has done better in the past, and the bar has been set pretty high after Sicario and Hell or High Water.
Hannah (Jolie) is a firefighter who lost three young boys in a fire. Since then, she's punished herself. When she encounters Connor (Little), whose father was just murdered by two assassins (Gillen and Hoult), she sees helping him as a path to redemption. Meanwhile, the kid's uncle Ethan (Bernthal) and his pregnant wife Allison (Senghore) get dragged into it when the killers go after them for info. We're led to believe Connor's dad had info on some dirty dealings but, apart from a brief scene with Tyler Perry in which we learn nothing, we don't know what they are. Therefore, we never know how high the stakes are. The performances are all decent, though I think Jolie was miscast, but this film needs a bit more meat on its bones. I gotta say, I also think the title is clunky and doesn't make a lot of sense. The film feels like it would fit snugly into the summer movie season of 1996. But for today's audience, it needs something more. Maybe a stronger villain, maybe a tighter script. Who knows? It's not a bad film, but it needs work. |