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Written by: Michael Koryta and Charles Leavitt and Taylor Sheridan (screenplay by), Michael Koryta (based on the book by)
Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, Aidan Gillen, Tyler Perry, Tory Kittles
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him as a forest fire threatens to consume them all.
Verdict
With a quick pace the runtime seems shorter than it is. It's entertaining enough, but it leaves a few unnecessary plot points dangling. Excising the conspiracy scene would have helped as it's never revisited. This devotes a lot of time to how broken the main character is when it should focus more on surviving during a forest fire. I wanted this to be more of a survival guide instead of revisiting her past trauma.
It depends.
Review
I've really enjoyed Taylor Sheridan's other movies, Hell or High Water, Wind River, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado. His movies mange to maintain an intensity throughout with sharp dialog. Those Who Wish Me Dead would be at the bottom of his works. The script doesn't have the character development and intensity I've seen in his other movies.
There's a few different threads to start this movie. Hannah (Angelina Jolie) works as a fire jumper, but a recent tragedy while fighting a fire has her sidelined. There are two contract killers (Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult) that are the antagonists, working to clean up crimes that remain a mystery. Then there is the accountant that uncovered the crimes. If you guess all of these connect, you're right.
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| Angelina Jolie plays Hannah. |
I liked the opening scene of Hannah and the boys having some fun. It felt natural, but also veered to forced development that seemed like it would inform scenes later in the movie. We see multiple times a scene from the past where Hannah is fighting a fire and realizes she's made a mistake. It's a way to add baggage, but repeating the same scene seems to be the only method the movie has to illustrate her suffering. I thought at one point it may play more of the scene to reveal something else, but it doesn't.
I like the contract killers. They are so matter of fact and completely emotionless. I wanted to see more of them. While they don't say much, there seems to be a lot more to their relationship than we realize. I'm guessing it's a bit of a mentor thing. They start a forest fire to distract the town from their job, but the real reason seems to be plot setup.
This ends up being Hannah and the accountant's kid on the run from the killers. I anticipated a survival movie as Hannah and the kid brave the wilderness and a fire to survive, but this isn't that. The killers are never far behind. This isn't a showcase for Hannah's survival skills. I thought it would be.
The fire makes for a great visual. I wonder how the production caught the look of the fire. The glow looks great, making you want to squint.
The secret information the accountant acquired plays the Macguffin. It seems to be part of a conspiracy large enough to set assassins loose on a small town. Unfortunately it lacks any payoff. If the movie can't answer these things it could easily delete a couple of scenes without changing the movie.
This plays at Hannah saving this kid as some part of redemption arc for her past mistakes, and that would work a lot better if it didn't remind of us or her past mistake so many times. It's not a bad action movie, but with Sheridan's past work I expected more than just a fair action movie.
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