Review: Salt

Angelina Jolie stars as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, a super-hot agent married to a seriously creepy-looking German dude (August Diehl) who specialises in spiders. What does she see in him? Mind you, we’re talking about an actress who kissed her brother on the lips in public, so I guess spider dudes aren’t so weird. Irrelevant observations aside, one day Salt is interrogating a Russian spy (Daniel Olbrychski) when he reveals to Salt and everyone else listening in (including colleague Liev Schreiber and Internal Affairs suit Chiwetel Ejiofor) that he knows Salt to be a Russian spy, a sleeper who is set to kill the Russian President in New York, while he attends the funeral of the US Vice President. Salt takes the news...um...not so well, and immediately calls her husband. He’s not answering, and Salt ponders what that might mean. She goes on the run, with her colleagues now chasing after her, thinking her to be a traitor and potential assassin. So just which side is Evelyn Salt on, if that’s even her real name? If she’s innocent, then what is she doing attending the funeral, especially when everyone’s looking for her?

Trust an Aussie to give us a rare action movie that isn’t entirely tricked-up to yin-yang, this 2010 Phillip Noyce (“Newsfront”, “Dead Calm”, “Blind Fury”) spy-actioner is a surprisingly fun, exciting ride. It certainly kicks Jason Bourne’s shaky-cam arse no doubt about it. The action and stunts here are bloody good, thanks to the cameraman not having an epileptic fit for a change and Noyce clearly knows simplicity is best. Wow, you can actually follow the action, how novel! The action is also accentuated by a terrific music score by James Newton Howard (“The Dark Knight”, “Signs”), which seems to have traces of Danny “Batman” Elfman and Brad “Terminator” Fiedel in it (Ironic given I roasted Howard and Zimmer for their nondescript work on “The Dark Knight”).

It’s a good yarn (starting off a little like a cross between “Die Another Day” and the Charles Bronson/Donald Pleasence Russian sleeper spy pic “Telefon”), and I feel Angelina Jolie is better suited to the action genre than more dramatic fare (like the disappointing “Changeling” and the otherwise excellent “The Good Shepherd”). This is certainly a better fit for her than her previous collaboration with Noyce, the mediocre serial killer flick “The Bone Collector”. She apparently did a lot of her own stunts, and most of the action is done with more practical methods, minimal CGI. Hooray for retro action! If you like your parkour, you’ll love what Jolie does here. The film also offers up a seriously harsh view of the CIA too, given how shockingly quickly they will turn on one of their own, based on word-of-mouth from a no-good Russkie spy. Meanwhile, we get a memorial service in the film that’s even crazier than the ones in either version of “Death at a Funeral”. Best of all, perhaps, is that the plot isn’t transparent. The funny thing is, for a while there, I thought I had it pegged easily. As it turns out, I guessed one twist fairly easily, failed to guess a second one, and a third one I thought was a dead certainty, involved a character who turned out to be largely irrelevant. I like a film that’s a bit cleverer than me, though I’m no genius, so perhaps that’s not much praise.

In addition to Jolie, the film is stolen by Liev Schreiber, after also doing good work in the underrated “Repo Men”, and the otherwise disappointing “Wolverine”. He’s excellent and perfectly cast. The ubiquitous Chiwetel Ejiofor gives the same decent performance he always does, he’s fine but unremarkable. I really wish he’d stop getting roles when Hollywood could just as easily throw the multi-talented Michael Jai White a bone. Also, Andre Braugher, despite fourth or fifth billing, gets absolutely nothing to do in a useless role as the Defence secretary. Given that, as the President, a guy named Hunt Block comes off more like a corporate schmuck, surely Braugher could’ve played that role much better. The twisty screenplay is by Kurt Wimmer, who redeemed himself for co-writing “Street Kings” and writing “Law Abiding Citizen”, both hideous and stupid crime-thrillers.

Overall this is just good, solid action storytelling in a clean, coherent fashion sadly not often seen in the last decade or two. I price that rather highly.

Rating: B-