“Those Who Wish Me Dead” / Those Who Wish Me Dead
Genre drama, thriller
Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Angelina Jolie (Hannah Faber), Nicholas Hoult (Patrick Blackwell), Jon Bernthal (Harrison), Aidan Gillen (Jack Blackwell), Finn Little (Connor Casserly), Tory Kittles (Ryan), Jake Weber (Connor’s father) and others .
Студии Warner Bros. Pictures, Creative Wealth Media Finance, Film Rites
Release year 2021
Site IMDb
Those Who Wish Me Dead were directed by Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the screenplay for the crime thriller Sicario and was one of the showrunners on Yellowstone.
For his new project, Sheridan did not create a script from scratch, but only helped to adapt the book Those Who Wish Me Dead by American writer Michael Corita, turning the best-selling book into a fast-paced survival film.
In the film adaptation of the novel, the main events fit into about one day – during this time, the characters need to escape from the fire that destroys the picturesque nature of Montana, and dodge bullets fired by assassins. The task is not easy, but the heroine named Hannah (Angelina Jolie) is quite capable of doing this.
In the past, Hannah was a member of the parachute fire brigade responsible for protecting the forest. Now, she’s battling PTSD and adjusting to her new position as a patrol officer whose job is to calmly survey the area from a watchtower. One day, Hanna spots a frightened, blood-splattered schoolboy running through the woods. The heroine tries to help and finds out that the boy is being pursued by professional killers – just a couple of hours ago, the criminals committed a series of murders, which they will not stop until they destroy their target.
Those Who Desire Me Dead turn out to be an old-fashioned thriller, where the details of the plot are not as important as the overall dynamics of events, complemented by a successful musical accompaniment.
This is a provincial American story with a calm city, the silence of which is broken by strangers. There is a responsible sheriff discussing business in a cafe, and a local community teaching survival skills. In a word, everything is quite normal and peaceful – but exactly until the heroes have to fight for their lives.
In this environment, Angelina Jolie seems to feel quite comfortable. This is the first time the actress has appeared in action since she moved into films with fairy tales (thrillers The Tourist and Salt came out in 2010 – after which Jolie changed direction in her career).
For her role in the film, Jolie was trained in the skills that fire paratroopers should have, and the actress also performed almost all the stunts on her own. In fact, there are not so many impressive jumps in the tape, but there are battle scenes in the frame. In them, Angelina Jolie gets into a fight with Nicholas Hoult.
To tell the truth, it is not entirely clear what Holt forgot in this film – he has long starred in the main and quite noticeable roles (the actor’s filmography includes film adaptations of the X-Men comics, the post-apocalyptic action movie Mad Max: Fury Road and the biographical drama Tolkien). Here, Nicholas suddenly appears as a faceless mercenary on a mission to eliminate a target.
The hero of Nicholas Hoult works with a partner in whom we recognize the Irish actor Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish from Game of Thrones). Their actions are very coordinated and thought out. It seems that these two have killed countless people in the past. But at the same time, both characters are completely devoid of any expressive features, they do not even have normal dialogues, which is rather annoying – Holt and Gillen deserve better.
If you do not take into account the ordinary killers, as well as a rather drawn-out plot, from the film “Those who wish me dead” turns out to be a dynamic action in which the heroine Jolie takes responsibility for someone else’s child.
Pros: story about survival; Angelina Jolie returns to action; the heroes face several dangers at once Cons: inexpressive characters of killers who went to Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen; tightened tie Conclusion:
an old-fashioned thriller with good pacing that keeps minor details less important.
