THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD
Cert 15 ★★★ In cinemas tomorrow
The title is taken from Michael Koryta’s 2014 novel which he has adapted for Wind River director Taylor Sheridan. But, as it’s released on the day when the picture houses reopen, it’s tempting to read it as a riposte to those who have been cheerily predicting the death of an art form.
With dramatic forest blazes and Angelina Jolie back in action heroine mode, this cinema-only release (in the UK at least) wears its big screen credentials on its fireresistant sleeves.
Jolie plays loose cannon Hannah who has been transferred to a remote lookout tower deep in the forests of Montana, presumably after failing a psych evaluation.
While her fellow specialist firefighters enjoy macho banter on the front line, haunted Hannah has been left alone with flashbacks of the day she “misread the wind” and watched three kids burn to death in a raging inferno.
She gets a shot at redemption when she crosses paths with 12-year-old Connor (Finn Little) who is on the run from ruthless hit men (Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult) who killed his accountant dad before he could expose a web of corruption.
When the assassins try to cover up their incompetence by starting a forest fire, the chase scenes have a suitably cinematic backdrop.
Sheridan and Koryta don’t fully develop the bond between the frightened boy and the traumatised Hannah, spending too much time on a subplot involving Jon Bernthal’s cop and his pregnant wife (Medina Senhorne).
So the pacing is off but the shootouts are tense, the scenery is spectacular and Jolie makes the most of her first action role since 2010’s Salt.
It’s a solid action thriller, rather than a great one, but it may just reignite your love of the silver screen.