Taylor Sheridan is an interesting storyteller. His work is punctuated by darkness, typically violence intruding on a pastoral landscape. And yet his films Hell or High Water (which he wrote) and Wind River (which he wrote and directed) try to wrangle a larger issue like the fallout from the great recession or how America left behind Native American reservations, respectively. Sheridan’s larger point seems to be that there’s a place for the neo-Western as the Wild West still exists not in the frontier but in the American character. And yet his latest film, Those Who Wish Me Dead, doesn’t really concern itself with any deeper message beyond a redemption story, which is fine. The character-driven stakes pair nicely with the intensity of the setting, and while there’s not much to chew on once the film is over, you still have a solid thriller that gets the blood pumping.

Hannah (Angelina Jolie) is a smokejumper suffering the trauma of a mission where she saw three young boys burn to death in a blaze. She’s relegated to tower duty but what’s supposed to be a slower job doesn’t pan out that way when she crosses paths with Connor (Finn Little), an adolescent boy running from assassins Jack (Aidan Gillen) and Patrick (Nicholas Hoult), who killed Connor’s father (Jake Weber). The assassins believe Connor may know some Very Damaging Information(TM) (the film doesn’t even really bother to specify what that information could be, dismissing it as the thin motivation that it is), so they’ve tracked him to Montana where he and his father fled for the assistance of local sheriff Ethan Sawyer (Jon Bernthal). As Hannah works to protect young Connor, the two hitmen start burning down the forest to provide a distraction while they hunt their prey.

those-who-wish-me-dead-angelina-jolie
Image via Warner Bros.

RELATED: 'Those Who Wish Me Dead' Trailer: Angelina Jolie Jumps Into the Fire With Tyler Perry

There’s not much more to the film than the bad guys hunting the good guys, but here Sheridan’s track record serves him well as he’s been willing to take his stories to some incredibly dark places, and it leaves you tense for how he may deal with these innocent characters. The fact that Sheridan is a director who can “go there” leaves you with the feeling that no one perhaps save Connor (since he’s the raison d'être for the story) is really “safe”, and that tension is able to carry the film even though it never amounts to anything more than a hunter/hunted story. There’s no deeper subtext beyond Hannah and Connor working through their baggage.

And yet Sheridan seems to know that’s the core of his movie because he spends a lot of time making sure we’re invested in these characters. Some may want the film to cut to the chase, but Sheridan doesn’t even put Hannah and Connor together until almost halfway through the movie because he wants us to care about them as individuals rather than as a plot point. We get to sympathize with their individual trauma and why they need each other not only to survive but for emotional support. Even here, the film may move slightly too fast, but the confines of the story mean that a bond has to develop quickly, and Jolie and Little make it work.

Angelina Jolie and Finn Little in Those Who Wish Me Dead
Image via Warner Bros.

Once Those Who Wish Me Dead has its central relationship, everything else falls into place. You’ve got good tension from the remorseless hitmen, you have people on the run, and the setting is literally on fire. It’s not a deep movie, but it’s an entertaining one and its small scale and thoughtful pacing puts our allegiances with the characters rather than depending on shootouts or other set pieces to carry the day. There are times where it seems like Sheridan is in danger of going too far, like a situation that emerges involving Ethan’s pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore), but the director wisely takes the film right to the edge without ever tipping over into nihilism or despair. At its core, Those Who Wish Me Dead is a film that’s looking to affirm our bonds rather than tear away at them like he did with Sicario.

Looking at Sheridan’s filmography, one might be left wondering at the end of Those Who Wish Me Dead, “That’s it?” But what it has to offer is still worthwhile if you’re willing to pare down your expectations of what the director is going for with his latest effort. You’ve still got a thrilling story packed with good performances and a captivating setting. For a film you can pop on HBO Max over the weekend, that’s a nice place for Those Who Wish Me Dead to be and another worthwhile entry into Sheridan’s lineup of neo-Westerns.

Rating: B

Those Who Wish Me Dead is now playing in select theaters and streaming on HBO Max.

KEEP READING: 'Yellowstone' Prequel Details Teased, Alongside New Taylor Sheridan Paramount+ Shows