Those Who Wish Me Dead

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, Aidan Gillen, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore, Tyler Perry
Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A wilderness firefighter (Angelina Jolie) must protect a teenager (Finn Little) from assassins (Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult) hired to kill him.

Review:

Tim: I've been a huge fan of Taylor Sheridan- he has written some of the best movies of the last few years and I've loved what he did with Yellowstone. I admit that when I saw he cast Angelina Jolie for the lead in this role, I was a bit nervous. Still, I trust Sheridan implicitly. Unfortunately, the reality is somewhere in the middle. Jolie was good, but this movie doesn't love up to the best films Sheridan has written (Wind River, Sicario, Hell or High Water). This movie is clear level below the quality of those films. So, in that lens, it's disappointing. Sheridan is capable of tremendous things, but Those Who Wish Me Dead will always be a lesser effort. I still liked the movie, but I wanted to like it a whole lot more.

From nearly the beginning, it was hard to care too much about the events of this film. Maybe it was because Sheridan adapted it from someone else's work, but the movie felt forced and less authentic than we've come to expect from Sheridan's work. It felt like too many strands tried to come together and Sheridan wasn't quite able to weave them into something spectacular. The movie is always good, but it felt like it was missing something to make it special. The story is never elevated beyond things we've seen dozens of times before. It's mostly predictable and expected.

That being said, Sheridan is a talented enough writer/director that he gives us a number of effective sequences throughout the film. The idea of two men hunting a teenager to silence him is an intense and interesting premise. Sheridan keeps us focused on the action and once things get moving, the film continues at a solid clip. At 1 hour, 40 minutes, the film definitely doesn't overstay its welcome. It feels lean and focused. Now, I never really cared about any of the characters, so that definitely blunts the film's overall impact. However, you still feel this desire to see how it all turns out (even if you suspect strongly what the end will be).

Angelina Jolie was good in the lead role. She's comfortable enough playing this kind of role and she is able to convey strength and vulnerability. She's believable in the more action-oriented scenes and she also makes an emotional connection with Finn Little. Jolie's performance never quite feels completely natural- she always feels like she's pushing a bit too hard. Still, she makes for a worthwhile lead. Little is solid in his role. He has a few great moments and utters the funniest line in the film near the end. I really loved the pairing of Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen as the assassins. Both are strong actors and it was fun seeing them together. I really appreciated the amount of time we spent with them. It felt like more than we'd usually see for the villains, but they were interesting and gave good performances, so the added time helped the film. I always love seeing Jon Bernthal and that was true again here. He doesn't get a whole lot to do, but he truly shines in a few great scenes. Medina Senghore was really strong in her supporting role, too. I had a lot of fun watching her in one of the most memorable performances of the film. Tyler Perry shows up for a scene but gives a solid effort. As a whole, the cast was good, but never quite feels incredible.

Those Who Wish Me Dead is ultimately a fairly straightforward, solid thriller. We have an innocent boy in peril. We have brutal, intelligent assassins on his trail. We get some entertaining scenes of the forest fire, which adds an intense twist onto the normal story. I wish the budget had been just a bit bigger so the forest fire scenes were a bit more epic, but they still serve the larger story. I always enjoyed the movie, so I don't want it to seem like I disliked it. My disappointment lies in the fact that much of what Sheridan has done is take something we've seen dozens of times before and elevate it so it feels incredibly fresh, vivid, and unique. That doesn't happen here. Those Who Wish Me Dead is always a good movie, but it feels exactly like countless other genre films. I enjoyed watching it, but I didn't see anything that would encourage me to see it again, or anything that made me sit up and take notice. This is a good movie, but I hoped for more than that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Wind River, Hell or High Water, Sicario