From the opening moments of Salt, a couple of things become crystal clear: a) Tom Cruise was a fool to have walked away from this one, and b) Angelina Jolie is now the world’s premiere action star.
CIA operative Evelyn Salt [Jolie] has her world torn apart when a Russian defector named Orlov [Daniel Olbrychski] names her as a deep cover Russian agent who will attempt to kill the Russian president within forty-eight hours. Because we’ve seen her rescued from a North Korean prison in the film’s opening moments, we wonder if maybe she was turned as a result of her imprisonment. Surely, she couldn’t have been in deep cover for most of her life.
From the moment Orlov makes his declaration, Salt tries to get to her husband, Mike [August Diehl], a German arachnologist whose efforts were largely responsible for her being rescued from that North Korean prison. Her boss, Ted Winter [Live Schreiber], seems to believe she’s not an enemy, but an intense fellow named Peabody [the always watchable Chiwetal Ejiofor] immediately wants to either lock her up or take her down. As the film progresses, and we learn more, Winter’s and Peabody’s behavior take on different nuances.
Kurt Wimmer’s [The Thomas Crown Affair, Law Abiding Citizen] script is meticulous in the kind of detail that gives the film a firm grounding [Salt kicking off her heels to run; no one carrying phones in the workplace] so that we buy into it when things move from real to improbable to preposterous. Director Phillip Noyce [Dead Calm, The Quiet American]keeps things moving at a brisk enough pace that we accept the growing improbabilities, yet provides moments where we get to see Salt’s emotions as they leak from behind her concentration on remaining free.
Salt also shows an old school sensibility in that virtually all of the stunts are practical – and the star does ninety-five per cent of her own stuntwork. The chase that follows Salt from her CIA front business to New York is smartly done and feels fresh – and because it’s practical, there is more of a feeling of danger than in many action films of the past few years.
Another reason the film feels real is the fighting. Because of her size, Salt not only fights well, she fights dirty – after all, in a fair fight, a skilled larger combatant will almost always defeat a killed smaller opponent. When Jolie turns on the whoop-ass afterburners, she is completely believable because she’ll do whatever it takes to win.
Still, Salt is very Bondian film, so the plot takes some very odd twists – twists that would definitely stretch an audience’s willing suspension of disbelief if not for the skilled direction of a cast of equally skilled performers. And this is where Salt rises above the rest of the summer’s action films – the skill at every level, from writing to acting.
At the heart of the film, it is Jolie’s performance that makes everything else work. Like Steve McQueen, she may be small, but her attitude is such that she knows she can take down any opposition – and because she knows it, we know it. Like Helen Mirren, Jolie keeps getting better at her craft as she gets older and that provides the foundation of her ability to project attitude as part of a full, unique acting performance.
In short, then, Salt ranks with the very best of the Bond movies [Goldfinger, Casino Royale] as examples of what a spy film can be. That it sets up a possible sequel is purely a bonus.
Final Grade: A-
“Salt” is a mindless, non-stop action summer flick with macho Angelina as a CIA agent on the run kicking a** (and receiving same). Heavy foreground music, ultra violent, and confusing. Much of it filmed in DC.
GRADE = “B”