Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, Finn Little, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore

Those Who Wish Me Dead is about a Montana fire jumper who is Haunted By Her Past and soon has a chance to Make Amends by protecting a young boy from hired killers.   If Taylor Sheridan's film didn't introduce so many characters with their own issues that we forget at times its star is in the movie, maybe Those Who Wish Me Dead could have worked.  Instead, it is ultra bogged down long before it gets to the main event.

And boy is it Bogged Down.   Jolie's Hannah Faber drinks a lot and is relegated to manning a fire tower after she fails to save the lives of children in a forest fire.   She Blames Herself and is Haunted By Flash Backs.   We also meet:  Hannah's former boyfriend (Bernthal), the local sheriff's deputy with a pregnant wife (Senghore), a forensic accountant (Weber) who flees Florida with his son (Little) after two assassins kill a local district attorney.   The accountant and son flee to Montana in hopes no one will find them.   The killers search the accountant's home for five minutes before determining somehow that the dad and son have fled to Montana.   These hitmen aren't known for being conspicuous.   They set up the most laborious trap on a mountain road to kill the dad which results in collateral damage.   The son survives, lights out for the woods, and the would-be killers start a forest fire as a way of distracting the local townsfolk so they could kill the kid in peace.

The kid stumbles across Hannah, who helps guide the boy through a fast-moving inferno which sweeps up and down the countryside while avoiding the killers.   These killers are supposed to be seasoned pros, but are masters of using shotguns to kill mosquitoes.   The fire itself is kind enough to stop its spread long enough for Hannah's final showdown with the assassins.   By the time the movie ends, the fire is ridiculously out of control and then, poof, the heroes wake up the next morning with the flames completely put out.   I am no forest fire expert, but I would assume it would take days to contain such a rapid forest fire.   

Those Who Wish Me Dead strives to be Meaningful, but it is so ludicrous we can't take it seriously even though it desperately wants us to.   The characters are not established long enough for us to care about them.   The hired guns maliciously and coldly dispatch everyone in their path but yet are reluctant to kill Hannah and any of the more important characters without at least giving them a chance to save their own lives.   They act according to who has top billing on the movie poster.   Sheridan's Hell or High Water (2016) was frustrating but at least had its moments of power.   That was a near-miss.  Those Who Wish Me Dead never had a chance to hit.