Film Review Salt 
US 2010. Cert 12A. 100 mins. Dir: Phillip Noyce. Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski
Film Review: Salt
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After a TV break, Phillip Noyce, the director responsible for The Bone Collector, The Saint, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games, returns with more all-out action. Reunited with Jolie, Noyce brings us Salt, a female take on Jason Bourne and this summer’s spy action blockbuster.
Accused by a Russian defector of being a Soviet sleeper agent and plotting to kill the Russian president in order to trigger World War III, CIA agent Evelyn Salt goes on the run and hopes to save her arachnologist husband, Mike. Her actions increasingly seem to question her allegiance – particularly after Vice President Maxwell Oates’ New York memorial service that the Russian president acts as honorary pallbearer for. The perfect agent, Evelyn is parentless after their death in a car crash in Russia in 1988. In the CIA she has built a name for herself as someone who’s risked much for her country. Keen to be the best at everything, she has one flaw – her marriage and apparent attachment to her husband (relationships are discouraged unless for tactical advantage).
The way Jolie plays Salt, there is never any certainty of her intentions, but it’s hard to doubt her survival skills. From the slick mouthwatering agent presented at the start she transforms into the mean bad girl before donning a latex mask to become a disturbing-looking androgynous man and later taking on a savage caged animal look, reminiscent of the inner wild she explored in Girl, Interrupted. Salt will do what she must to survive, including enduring North Korean prison interrogation. It’s difficult not to agree when she is described as Orlov’s “greatest creation” and hard to believe she’ll “rot in a hole” and fail to find a means of escape.
Having played the original tough girl monkeying around in Tomb Raider, Jolie is now well established in the action genre with Wanted and Mr & Mrs Smith demanding a similar energy. In Salt, she plays Evelyn with a credible combination of inner strength, physical endurance and tactical fast-thinking, still managing to portray a convincing emotional edge. Although mysterious, her actions seem to be for the greater good and Evelyn knows who she is, even if we don’t.
Having Jolie as the lead performing her own stunts is Salt‘s greatest strength. Amid irritating cliched remarks about Russia rising from the ashes to seize control of America’s atomic weapons, threats of anti-American riots, mentions of “Death Con Two, Death Con Four…” and hard-talking presidents (“If this is authorised by the Russian government, it’s an act of war and we will respond”), it’s hard to care what happens to the country, but Salt‘s fate is another matter.
Brimming with plenty of explosions, chases, double crossings, clever stunts and a noteworthy supporting role played by Liev Schreiber, Salt acts as a reminder of Jolie’s considerable talent – but at the same time is merely an excuse to chow down popcorn and set up a sequel.
Released in cinemas from 18 August
Posted on Thursday 19th August 2010
Leo Owen
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