In the line of fire... THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD (15)
WHEN A YOUNG BOY WITNESSES HIS FATHER’S MURDER, ANGELINA JOLIE’S FIREFIGHTER COMES TO THE RESCUE
ANGELINA JOLIE puts herself through emotional and physical wringers in this action thriller as a firefighter who winds up protecting a young witness to a crime. Writer-director Taylor Sheridan turns up the heat in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Hannah Faber ( Jolie) is a specially trained wildland firefighter or smokejumper, who makes life or death decisions as she seeks to protect the mountains of Montana from destruction. Haunted by the loss of three lives in a fire on her watch, Hannah is gifted an unlikely shot at redemption when she stumbles upon terrified 12-yearold Connor Casserly (Finn Little). The blood-spattered boy is on the run from hit men Jack (Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen) and Patrick (X-Men’s Nicholas Hoult), who murdered Connor’s father ( Jake Weber), an accountant with proof of malfeasance in the upper echelons of power. Jack intentionally starts a forest fire to distract authorities, including
Connor’s uncle Park County Sheriff Ethan Sawyer ( Jon Bernthal), while they hunt their guileless prey. However, the gun-toting killers underestimate Mother Nature and her furies: Hannah and Ethan’s heavily pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore).
Jolie kindles winning screen chemistry with 14-year-old Australian costar Little, who scorches every frame with his powerhouse portrayal of a traumatised murder witness.
Fire sequences are orchestrated in pulse-quickening close-up in a specially constructed 300-acre forest, which Sheridan and his team set ablaze to minimise the use of digital effects and immerse actors in their smouldering environment. Those Who Wish Me Dead sets nerves on edge in opening scenes and stokes that sense of unease by coolly dispatching characters in nail-biting action sequences.
Little’s waterworks are no match for real and digitally rendered fires, which mercilessly devour everything in their path and bathe Jolie’s features in flickering golden light. Where there’s smoke, Sheridan’s film is on fire.
■ Released: May 17