'Those Who Wish Me Dead' review: Angelina Jolie action drama never catches fire

A good-hearted cop, a troubled firefighter and a runaway boy with a secret cross paths in a raging Montana wildfire in "Those Who Wish Me Dead." With Angelina Jolie in the lead and filmmaker-of-the-moment Taylor Sheridan ("Hell or High Water," television’s "Yellowstone") behind the camera, the movie promises action, spectacle and star power. Just the ticket for another pandemic-era evening on the couch, right?

It’ll do — but only if you’re truly desperate. Based on a novel by Michael Koryta, who co-wrote with Charles Leavitt and Sheridan, "Those Who Wish Me Dead" feels like several screenplay scraps stapled into something that just might pass as a movie. It’s part disaster film, part conspiracy thriller, built around an emotionally scarred hero and a bereft boy — "The Towering Inferno" meets "Witness," with a little "Three Days of the Condor." If you don’t like the movie, just wait a minute.

Jolie plays a smokejumper named Hannah — yep, in Montana — who is plagued by nightmares of a burning family she failed to rescue. Sitting alone in her watchtower, she weeps after each flashback. Meanwhile, Owen (Jake Weber), a forensic accountant who refused to cover up a conspiracy, goes on the lam with his young son, Connor (Finn Little). What’s the conspiracy, you ask? Owen carefully writes it down on a note we never see, cleverly saving the screenwriters a great deal of trouble. "This case implicates a lot of people, son," he says, and that’s that.

Exit dad (bloodily), and a panicked Connor soon stumbles upon Hannah in the woods. Also drawn into the story are Ethan (Jon Bernthal), a sheriff’s deputy who happens to be Hannah’s ex-beau, and his pregnant wife, Allison (Brentwood native Medina Senghore). Soon they’re all running from two assassins (Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult) who are ruthless if not terribly interesting: One’s icy, the other’s icier. Tyler Perry shows up as their boss, one of those suit-wearing operatives who speaks only in cynical aphorisms.

With little else to hold our interest, "Those Who Wish Me Dead" falls back on its last resort: The fire. It’s inherently cinematic, but the film mishandles even this. As the characters run from the flames and race through clouds of ash, nobody appears affected by smoke or heat; they never even cough. As for Jolie, hers is not what you’d call an all-in performance. She looks the same in nearly every scene: runway perfect, save for a touch of soot.

The film’s one bright spot is Allison, the pregnant wife who emerges as a true hero — a rare breed even in female-driven action movies. Despite her baby bump, Allison proves so resilient, quick quickwitted and handy with a rifle that you might start to wish she were the lead character. At least then "Those Who Wish Me Dead" might have thrown off a spark or two. Instead, like a badly built campfire, it just sputters out.