‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ is a total mess
Maybe you’ve heard the parable about the blind men and the elephant where, never having seen the animal, they try to describe it.
“Those Who Wish Me Dead” movie version of that.
Despite a considerable amount of talent involved, it seems like it was cobbled together from a bunch of different parts that don’t fit together. Directed by Taylor Sheridan, who gets a free pass for life for writing “Hell or High Water,” and starring Angelina Jolie (sort of), it’s a film about a smokejumper trying to overcome tragedy.
It’s also about a kid on the run from assassins. It’s about what transpired to
is the
compel that kid to run, which involves his father, an accountant and yet more tragedy. It’s about a wildfire raging out
of control. In its best moments, it’s about the disgruntled nature of the assassins chasing after the kid.
I haven’t seen any other movies where hired killers complain about how budget cuts are affecting their ability to do their job. It’s like they hooked into the vibe from “Midnight Run,” a much better movie, and tried to bring it to this one.
Except when they don’t, and the assassins are deadly serious.
Angelina Jolie plays a smokejumper in need of redemption
To run through the various threads: A year ago in Montana, Hannah (Jolie) read the wind wrong while leading a team of smokejumpers fighting a fire, and watched as people died. Obviously, this has traumatized her, but the macho code among the firefighters requires that she drink too much and take insane chances with her life to prove she is OK (she is not).
Meanwhile, in Florida, Jack Blackwell (the always welcome Aidan Gillen) and Patrick Blackwell (Nicholas Hoult) — not their real names, one presumes — are going about the business of killing a district attorney. Their relationship, and the way they conduct their work, is the best thing about the film.
Their next target is Casserly (Jake Weber), the accountant who discovered some shady goings-on and turned over the information. He knows what’s what, so he grabs his son, Connor (Finn Little), and hits the road.
As it happens, Casserly is friends with Ethan and Allison Sawyer (Jon Bernthal and Medina Senghore); they all attended a survival school together. Ethan is now a cop in Montana, so Casserly and Connor begin a cross-country drive that seems to take less than the normal amount of time. But honestly, in a movie like this, that barely registers. There are too many other absurd coincidences to notice.
A subdued Tyler Perry makes a much-needed appearance
Whatever the case, events conspire to place Connor on the run, alone, in the Montana forest, where the despondent Hannah sees him and takes him under her wing. Kind of a dicey proposition, really. But she is the type of person who can fall out of an observation tower, suffer severe rope burns on her hand and, I am not kidding here, get struck by lightning and just keep on keeping on.
So yes, Hannah has to overcome her guilt and, conveniently enough for her — but not for Connor or anyone else who gets chased or maimed or slaughtered in the wake of the assorted murders and whatnot — a kid in trouble is placed literally right in her path. Handy.
The two Blackwells are on the hunt, though there is a brief stop to check in with their boss, Arthur, played by Tyler Perry, who honestly is so good in this kind of thing. Arthur is not happy and definitely gets the point across that unhappiness is perhaps a terminal condition in this line of work.
Really, every actor is likable and, all by themselves, good here. It’s that each situation is more ridiculous than the last and none of it fits together, even when everything gets tossed into the narrative blender toward the end.
At times, the story is propelled only by Gillen’s bile. Fine by me, but it makes for an uneven tone — though that’s hardly the film’s biggest problem.