Those Who Wish Me Dead
Warner BrosTaylor Sheridan, one of the many, many rising stars of Hollywood, has not quite hit the ground running. His latest thriller feature, Those Who Wish Me Dead, is an unfortunate setback and stepdown from his previous work, the immensely tense, tundra-set Wind River. Where is there to go but down? Quite literally, in the case of Those Who Wish Me Dead, which opens with a freefall down into a fiery forest. Its immediate carnage and bewildering dream sequence shuffle around briefly and awkwardly to introduce leading character Hannah (Angelina Jolie). Tasked with bringing light to corrupt causes, she and tag-along Connor (Finn Little) set out to save the day, themselves, and the moral standing of good-hearted America.
Alternatively, at least, that is what it feels like. As Jon Bernthal shows up for his inevitable supporting role in the Sheridan piece, his introduction has him standing proudly in front of a windswept American flag. Tropes in the action genre are acceptable. Making peace with the patriotic, foul-mouthed camaraderie is necessary, but Sheridan believes he can shake up the formula by throwing Jolie in there. Her performance is good, holding all the cliché that Steven Seagal and Arnold Schwarzenegger could bring to their respective projects. She is the sunglasses-wearing, beer-drinking badass who is plagued by horrid visions of a firefighting mission gone wrong. Of course, she is pulled in as an impromptu legal guardian for Connor, and of course, she is in over her head. Where would we be in the action genre if it were not for irresponsible adults looking after cautious, coddled children?
However, as the country music flows and the script inches ever closer to hollering out “Yeehaw,” it takes that vital twist. Those Who Wish Me Dead is an acceptable feature, but it does not utilise the merits Sheridan presented in his earlier work. His cold-hearted, slow-burning style found in Wind River is replaced by a need to shoot adrenalin into the places usually reserved for essential character building. Aiden Gillen and Nicolas Hoult do not, necessarily, need this build-up. Their appearance marks them out for what they can provide - a buddy detective duo emphasising the detective aspect of their relationship. They do a little more than detect. What could possibly go wrong? Decent performances from the pair, especially Hoult, who shines through as surprisingly tough and action-oriented. Those Who Wish Me Dead has that popcorn variety quality to it, shining through with its action, but its narrative falls on deaf ears. It cannot conjure up those emotive, tense moments all that often.
Those Who Wish Me Dead pulls no punches and tells no lies. Simplistic but effective. Sheridan displays confidence, and the Hollywood darling has done it again, but with a lacking bite and unsure focus. He displays the tact and desire to tell a story but has nothing worth telling. He tries his hand at the action genre. Hopefully, it is now out of his system, and he can return to the nail-biting tension he flourishes on. Action is tertiary to his work, and when it breaches into the forefront, that is where problems begin to bubble up and over. Sheridan presents high stakes and high risks, but with little reward to follow through those early, touching notes of sentimentalism and the havoc that strains the mind of this leading character. Ugly times indeed, and Jolie is more than capable of making them believable, but Those Who Wish Me Dead does not confidently present itself as ever needing such moments.