Susan Granger’s review of “Those Who Wish me Dead” (New Line/Warner Bros./HBO Max)
What a wretched title!
Yet, if you can really believe beautiful Angelina Jolie as a rugged Montana Forest Service firefighter, you may well enjoy this Neo-Western thriller.
Hannah Faber (Jolie) is a hotshot smokejumper who’s suffering from PTSD. When the wind unexpectedly turned as she and her buddies were battling a horrific blaze, three youngsters weren’t able to escape.
Still haunted by their screams, Hannah is dispatched to spend several weeks recovering in an isolated watchtower in the woods.
“No toilet,” she notes in disgust.
Meanwhile, in suburban Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, two assassins – Jack (Aidan Gillen) and Patrick (Nicolas Hoult), disguised as utilities workers – enter the home of the District Attorney and blow it up. That alerts Owen Casserly (Jake Weber), a forensic accountant who just uncovered high-level malfeasance that the DA was about to expose.
So Owen, a widower, takes off with his young son Connor (Finn Little), seeking sanctuary in a Montana survival camp that’s run by his former brother-in-law/lawman Ethan Sawyer (Jon Bernthal) – a.k.a. Hannah’s ex-boyfriend – and his very pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore).
Driving cross-country, they’re tracked by the hitmen who set a trap to kill Owen. Under orders from their crime boss (Tyler Perry) to provide a ‘diversion,‘ they ignite a forest fire which then leads now-orphaned Connor to seek refuge with Hannah as the raging fire threatens to engulf their hideaway.
Adapted by crime writer Michael Koryta from his pulpy 2014 novel with Charles Leavitt and director Taylor Sheridan (“Wind River,” “Sicario”), it stretches credulity, emerging as simplistic and totally predictable – filled with fast-paced action and Ben Richardson’s superb landscape cinematography.
FYI: this film is dedicated to sound editor Alan Robert Murray, who died earlier this year.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Those Who Wish Me Dead” is a superficially satisfying 6, streaming free on HBO Max.
