It would be an understatement to say that Angelina Jolie is put through the wringer in writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s new film “Those Who Wish Me Dead.”
In just 100 minutes, she is beaten and bruised by nature, men and even some of her own choices — like a crazy stunt involving a parachute and a pickup truck. Jolie has always thrown herself into physically demanding roles, but her Montana firefighter Hannah Farber may take the cake for most cuts and shiners sustained in 24 hours. This is a film in which she’s running from hitmen, raging forest fires and past traumas. Apparently her face and body are the physical representation of that.
“Those Who Wish Me Dead” was adapted from a novel about Connor, a 12-year-old boy on the run from a pair of assassins who killed his dad. Screenplay credits go to the author Michael Koryta, Charles Leavitt (“Blood Diamond”) and Sheridan, who seems to be cornering the market on bleak and bloody Western thrillers. Sheridan wrote the screenplays for “Sicario,” “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River.”
This outing is not quite as grim as “Wind River” but it’s still very much in that vein. And like his folksy-poetic dialogue or not, he knows how keep a film moving and give his actors juicy moments to chew on. He’s populated this film with solid talent including Jon Bernthal as a local sheriff, and Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult as the hitmen. Finn Little, who plays Connor, can turn on the waterworks and internalized trauma as effectively as Jolie.
