THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Year of Release: 2021

I went into this film with extremely low expectations, the reviews had been mixed and it performed poorly at the box office on its opening weekend. Even by post COVID standards publicity had been scant, almost as if all those involved wanted to disown it.

In all fairness, it isn’t that bad, the premise is after witnessing a murder a young boy (Connor) is being hunted by two assassins in the Montana woods and crosses paths with a female smokejumper (Hannah played by Angelina Jolie) who attempts to guide him through the fire-stricken woods and to safety.

There is plenty of action and suspense, will the assassins find Connor, will Hannah be able to get Connor to safety through the flames, with the added threat of a thunderstorm bringing lightning strikes knocking out the radio in Hannah’s fire tower where she and Connor seek shelter.

All this falls pretty flat though, as there is truly little to connect the audience to these characters, they are so thinly drawn with almost no back story, it is hard to find true empathy for them. The motivations for the murder at the start of the film is never revealed, we never find out who the assassins work for, and they are dispensed with far too easily too. 

The scenery is spectacular, there are some great shots of the mountains from above the fire tower and you can almost smell the trees burning in the fire scenes which are spectacular.  If only such attention to detail had been given to the storyline, I have not read the book, but I believe the script deviates from it considerably, perhaps that is to bump up the suspense or to make it more of a ‘star vehicle’ for Angelina Jolie. Whatever the reason I think it is to the detriment of the film where emotional beats are side-lined for action.

Aidan plays Jack Blackwell, one of two assassins, the other is Patrick Blackwell played by Nicholas Hoult. Their true relationship is never revealed – are they father and son, or brothers, I guess it doesn’t really matter, they just go through the motions, although as assassins go, they do seem to be pretty useless.  Both Aidan and Nicholas are great actors, totally wasted in these one-dimensional roles, at one point they go and meet their boss, and it is obvious they work for a well organised high-level organisation, we just don’t find out what that is.

I guess Aidan makes the most of what he is given, but this ranks low down on his long list of bad guy characters, there is a total lack of charm or charisma, Jack is just doing his job, one that, to be honest, neither him nor Patrick are particularly good at. By the time, the inevitable happened, I had gone past caring about the fate of any of the characters. I always find Aidan’s Hollywood films to be lacking but this is one of the worst he has been involved with, certainly in recent years, recommended only for collectors of his works.