There’s something to be said for the appeal of the 90 minute movie. Why waste time on a 2 hour epic of you can get in and out, telling your story in a focused and efficient way? This is very much the case for Taylor Sheridan’s new thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, a tight, well paced story of a traumatised firefighter forced to push her personal demons to the side to help a young boy on the run from assassins. There’s not a surprise in sight of the predictable storyline, but Sheridan aims to entertain and he does that by cutting most the fat around Angelina Jolie and company, with only a few ham-fisted metaphors distracting from their journey. It also doesn’t hurt that the supporting cast is phenomenal, with Jon Bernthal, Aiden Gillen and Nicholas Hoult injecting energy into characters that would otherwise have bored rather than excited. Those Who Wish Me Dead doesn’t aim to do a lot, but what it does it does well.
Jolie’s jaded firefighter Hannah is something of a blank slate, thanks to a lifeless performance that never manages to bring the audience onside in any meaningful emotional way despite the life-or-death stakes. With a rebellious streak and a past trauma established early on, it isn’t long before our heroine is confined to a fire-watch station far above the trees for a significant chunk of time. From there everything that possibly could go wrong does; from lightning storms to shootouts, and Jolie barely manages a look of mild shock let alone terror at having her quiet shift descend into anarchy. Fortunately she is paired for most of the runtime with Finn Little’s escapee Connor; frightened and on the run after narrowly escaping a violent clash with assassins Patrick (Hoult) and Jack (Gillen). Little is giving it his all in his performance; a sympathetic but not entirely helpless kid who is clearly rattled by the recent events that cost him his father (Jake Weber), putting on a brave face to deliver the message entrusted to him. The chemistry between the pair doesn’t exactly send sparks flying even if Little is trying his heart out, but Connor’s presence softens Hannah’s rough exterior just enough for a few genuinely touching moments.
Hoult and Gillen’s meticulous assassins are a breath of fresh air in a genre often populated by hapless goons in pursuit of the heroes. They are genuinely intelligent people – Gillen especially, who slips right back into his Game of Thrones character’s villainy with ease – thinking strategically to capture their targets and leave as few traces as possible. Alas, this is a movie, so that antiseptic approach to crime soon goes out the window when Connor escapes and Jon Bernthal’s police chief Ethan arrives on the scene, forced to assist the hitmen in tracking down the boy. Ethan is more than a match for the two and the constant battle of wits and survival between the two sides is far more engaging than Hannah and Connor’s storyline, to the point that when they finally do intersect you’ll almost wish you hadn’t, as the film descends into a clichéd third act confrontation; undermining the intelligence of its characters in favour of wrapping everything up neatly. It is also where a lot of those heavy-handed metaphors are shoehorned in -particularly that of fire, which feels like an afterthought and a device to drive Hannah into battle rather than the examination of the firefighter lifestyle that the opening 20 minutes wastes time having you believe.
While its story isn’t going to win any awards for originality, Taylor Sheridan’s thriller succeeds in telling its narrative in a taut and streamlined way, with characters that demonstrate genuine smarts. The script (also co-written by Sheridan) wisely recognises that it doesn’t need to give you tons of backstory to these characters and that simply presenting them as capable people in harrowing situations will bring the audience on-side, extracting all the tension it can before it overstays its welcome. Jolie’s rigid acting doesn’t ruin the film thanks to an excellent supporting cast, with a special mention to Finn Little’s powerful performance. Those Who Wish Me Dead may not burn up the box office, but it should be enough to brighten a lazy Sunday afternoon once it hits streaming.
Those Who Wish Me Dead stars Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, Finn Little, Medina Senghore, Jake Weber, Tyler Perry & Jon Bernthal – In cinemas now and streaming on HBO Max in the US.