Movie Review: Salt (12A)

Jenness Mitchell • Published 25 Aug 2010 08:18 0 Comments

Angelina Jolie returns to the big screen Lara Croft style in Phillip Noyce's political action thriller, Salt.

Revolving around a Cold War theme, CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) and partner Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) are called to interrogate a walk-in Russian defector, Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), who informs the authorities that the visiting Russian President will be assassinated at the American Vice President's funeral in New York by a sleeper Russian spy.

The twist; the spy's name is Evelyn Salt. Quickly denying the implication, Salt fears for the safety of her German arachnologist husband Mike.

Unable to reach her other half, Salt soon finds herself on the run from co-workers as she tries to clear her name, find her missing husband and take down the Eastern spy ring that has infiltrated the American Government.

Twists and turns

It's just another day in the life of our Angelina Jolie.

There are several twists and turns, but nothing too surprising or perplexing for the audience. Given the casting talent and genre, the scriptwriters should have offered up something more.

What could have been a very intriguing and dark thriller in fact was boring, stagnant and ridiculous.

Originally offered to Tom Cruise but turned down due to being too close to his Mission Impossible Ethan Hunt character, the role was re-written as a star vehicle for Angelina.

Evelyn Salt was supposed to be the female Jason Bourne.

There is no argument; Angelina makes for an exciting action-woman.

As a CIA/Russian spy, the best scenes within the movie are when we watch on as Salt creates weapons from household chemicals, mauls her way through a swathe of solid men and then patches her wounds with a sanitary pad.

My problem is not with the female lead, it instead lies with the weak story.

If Salt had been given a better background tale I would have empathised with the character and may have found the unrealistic scenarios more believable.

Although an Academy Award winner, I much prefer Jolie in a supporting role.

Impressive

She is impressive when running, jumping and shooting, but lacks the screen charisma of Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez and Milla Jovovich. Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, 2012) should have been given more screen time also, instead of playing second fiddle to Angelina's lead.

If a sequel is commissioned the producers should look to emulate the darkness of Bourne along with the more recent outings of Bond and Batman if they want to make a better film.

Salt is not bad, it's merely flat. If anything hold out for Naomi Watts and Sean Penn's Fair Game for political kicks.

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