David R. Walker

Those Who Wish Me Dead

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, Aiden Gillen, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore, Tyler Perry

Oscar winner Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) lights up the screen in Taylor Sheridan’s adaptation of a novel by Michael Koryta entitled Those Who Wish Me Dead which centres on a fire jumper Hannah played by Jolie who becomes the protector of a young boy named Connor played by Finn Little after he witnesses his father being murdered by two heartless assassins Patrick and Jack played respectively by Nicholas Hoult (The Favourite, A Single Man) and Aidan Gillen (Bohemian Rhapsody, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword).

The father Owen, a forensic accountant came across some dodgy financial dealings and was targeted by a crime boss Arthur played by Tyler Perry (Gone Girl).

Unfortunately, the writer of Hell or High Water and Wind River, Taylor Sheridan who also directs this explosive action thriller does not provide sufficient background information on the motives for the killings or even frame the plot within a larger context which is the inherent weakness of a film, which should have been great, but turns out to be average. This is despite the star power of Angelina Jolie who simply looks too beautiful to be a fire jumper in the Montana wilderness.

Jolie should stick to doing more prolific roles like Maleficent.  Even Nicholas Hoult who was so good in the Oscar winning film The Favourite opposite Rachel Wiesz and Olivia Colman, was wasted in a film with minimal dialogue although due to Hoult’s massive physique he was impressive as the ruthless assassin Patrick who has to battle Hannah as she attempts to protect Connor during a raging forest fire.

Jon Bernthal (The Wolf of Wall Street) stars as the county sheriff Ethan who gets caught up in the middle of the action as the assassins go after Connor as he is left to fend for himself with the help of Hannah in the Montana wilderness. Hannah keeps telling Connor to run to the rivers which leads to the towns and to safety.

The action scenes in Those Who Wish Me Dead are very impressive and the forest is almost a character on its own, however the dialogue and the back story for this confusing action thriller needed to be clearly developed. Which is considerably disappointing since director Taylor Sheridan was the writer and director of such brilliant films as Wind River and the Oscar nominated Hell or High Water.

Those Who Wish Me Dead is an explosive action thriller with Angelina Jolie taking the lead as the gung ho gorgeous heroine, which is light on dialogue and heavy on action and suspense. This film is fun and enjoyable but the story is too weak to make the viewers empathise sufficiently with the plight of the characters.

For those that enjoy an action heavy adventure story, catch Those Who Wish Me Dead in cinemas now. This Montana set action thriller gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10.

Those Who Wish Me Dead is now showing in Cinemas

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