Tyler Sheridan greatly impressed me with his string of modern westerns–namely Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River. Set in the American west, these movies used a general Western aesthetic to tell more modern stories. Sheridan only wrote the script for the first two, but he moved on to the director’s chair for Wind River, showing a keen eye of his own even if it wasn’t quite on par with Sicario‘s Denis Villeneuve or Hell or High Water‘s David Mackenzie. I wasn’t aware that Sheridan had a new movie coming out this year, but here we are.
And hey, it’s set in Montana, so we may have another modern Western on our hands.
Smokejumper Hannah Faber (Angelina Jolie) was unable to rescue some trapped boys during a forest fire and has been stationed in a watchtower ever since. Outside the tower, she’s one of the boys, much to the consternation of her ex-boyfriend sheriff Ethan (Jon Bernthal). However, events may soon conspire to give Hannah another chance. A pair of father-son killers (Aiden Gillen and Nicholas Hoult), having just killed a forensic accountant who found strong evidence against their crimelord boss (Tyler Perry), are now trying to take out the man’s son (Finn Little) who now has his father’s evidence on his person. Hannah finds the boy just as the killers start a forest fire to help cover their own tracks. Can Hannah pull herself together long enough to keep herself and young Connor live before either the fire or the killers get to them?
I’ve come to expect good work from Sheridan’s script work. I remember watching parts of Wind River and wondering why, for example, Jeremy Renner’s character was a source of comfort to a seemingly random man only to later in the movie learn he wasn’t so random after all. Sicario is a brilliant, often violent indictment on the war on drugs. Heck, the sequel to Sicario, Sicario: Day of the Soldado still had some good twists to it. But while Wind River looked to bring attention to unreported crime against Native American women or Hell or High Water was about predatory banks, there doesn’t seem to be much else beyond a standard thriller at work for Those Who Wish Me Dead.
That’s actually fine. Even if there may not be much new here in terms of story, Sheridan the writer still provides a decent script. The real saving grace here is Sheridan the director. He managed to keep the movie tense throughout, and he gets some interesting performances from his actors. They may not be award-winning, but they’re different enough to keep me a little intrigued if nothing else. Gillen and Hoult’s killers are, for the most part, very casual and lowkey about what they do. Oh, to be sure, they’re still dangerous, but neither seems psychotic so much as this is their job and they happen to be good at it. Likewise, Jolie’s Hannah is bright and little quirky but not obnoxiously so, and her survival skills are a force to be reckoned with. But having good survival skills seems to be the order of the day for many of the characters in this wooded Montana community. These are not dumb people on either side. The killers need to do a job and are generally good at killing. Hannah, Ethan, and the others are good at living off the land.
That actually comes out rather quickly. Both killers seem to acknowledge early on that their skills are of limited use where they are, with Gillen’s more experience hitman even commenting about how ill-prepared they were for their job despite the fact he will absolutely do his best to see it through to the end. Even if the story hits familiar beats, Sheridan keeps the movie tense and exciting. I wouldn’t call it his best work, but if this is lesser work from Sheridan, it’s a hell of a lot better than a lot of other directors’ best. A talented cast and tight direction elevate this one enough to get a solid recommendation from me. I may have seen what was coming before it happened, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every second of the journey.
Grade: B-
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