Columbia Pictures
Presents
SALT
Starring:
Angelina Jolie – Evelyn Salt
Liev Schreiber – Ted Winter
Chiwetel Ejiofor – Peabody
Daniel Olbrychski – Orlov
August Diehl – Mike Krause
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Written by Kurt Wimmer
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who is Salt?”
I went in thinking, “Here we go. Another Angelina Jolie movie where she’s killing a bunch of things and blowing shit up on a massive scale.” I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was not like that at all. Yes she was killing, and at times blowing things up, but she was also trying to unravel this mysterious conspiracy plot that somehow she found herself right in the middle of. Plus, at least for a brief moment, there’s something new and sexy about Jolie with blonde hair. It took a couple of minutes past the initial look to get used to it for me.
So onto the actual movie. Jolie plays the title character Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative and loving wife to Mike Krause (played by August Diehl) who, as we see when the movie opens, will go to any lengths to make sure she’s alright. On the day of their anniversary, as Salt is about to leave the job, a Russian defector named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) turns himself into the CIA where he makes a startling accusation that the Russian president will be killed by a sleeper agent named “Evelyn Salt.” This prompts Jolie to go on the run, chased from DC to New York by her boss Ted Winter (Live Schreiber) and a determined counter terrorist agent, Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Along the way, you begin to see how Salt has revelations relating to her past and just how tightly this network of Russian sleeper agents are, with entwined fingers in a number of US government positions.
The movie itself played out very smoothly. It was paced very nicely, allowing you to take a good look at just what Salt knows and what she can do without tripping over any story or action sequences. The development and unraveling of the finer details of the plot are smooth, never tripping over it to confuse the viewer. It’s almost as if you’re really along for the ride with her, step by step, as the secrets keep unfurling before Salt. Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium, Ultraviolet, Law Abiding Citizen) did a beautiful job on the script for the movie, and Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Saint) brings his expertise in suspenseful government conspiracy movies to the director’s chair.
Action-wise, Jolie is at some of her best. She doesn’t seem to be slowing down with age at all, doing all her own stunts in the movie which included jumping from a bridge to a moving truck to another moving truck, free-styling down an elevator shaft, and being a virtual one woman punching and kicking machine. Granted some things did slightly blend into the realm of the fantastic (using a tazed police officer to engage into a fantastic car scene), it was still just plausible to be real and visually stunning enough for you not to care.
Schreiber and Ejiofor are very good supporting cast members when they appear, though their roles are more in the beginning and the end of the movie. All in all, I’d have to say this was one of the more action movies I’ve seen in a while. And after seeing how this one ended, I can’t wait for the next one in the series.
Review by:
Justin Douglas
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