Those Who Wish Me Dead review: Angelina Jolie outclasses a profoundly silly film

Her level of nuance seems out of place for a film where she’s getting chased by pyromaniac assassins

Clarisse Loughrey
Friday 14 May 2021 06:30 BST
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Those Who Wish Me Dead trailer

Dir: Taylor Sheridan. Starring: Angelina Jolie, Finn Little, Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore, Jon Bernthal. Cert 15, 100 mins

Angelina Jolie’s bare-knuckled performance in Those Who Wish Me Dead easily outclasses the film that contains it. The survival drama, in which she plays a smokejumper attempting to curb the spread of forest fires, has been advertised as a comeback of sorts. That’s not quite true – Jolie’s spent the last decade directing and working on more family-oriented fare, such as Maleficent and last year’s The One and Only Ivan – but here, she returns in all her film star regalia.

Jolie has the languid but powerful repose of a lion overseeing its pride. She is commanding without ever coming off as emotionless. It’s just a shame that Those Who Wish Me Dead – shot with absolute solemnity but profoundly silly at its core – is the one to welcome her back. It should have been the heavily delayed and undoubtedly more impressive Eternals, directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao.

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