Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a spitfire thin C.I.A. super spy so badass that she would make Jason Bourne weep with jealousy. As a combination of the Bionic Woman, James Bond and MacGyver Salt is nigh invincible, performing acts of agility that defy the laws of gravity such as leaping from one moving semi truck to another and descending down an elevator shaft by jumping from one level to the next. Jolie lights up the screen in Salt and proves to be a more than capable action heroine as she fights, jumps, stabs, shoots and hurdles her way through a taut 100-minute espionage thriller.
As the movie starts Salt’s world is turned upside down when a defected Russian spy surrenders himself to the C.I.A. During interrogation he declares that he is there to help a Russian spy assassinate the Russian Prime Minister during the Vice President’s funeral at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. That spy’s name happens to be Evelyn Salt and according to the C.I.A.’s lie detector he’s telling the truth. Double, triple and quadruple crosses occur in the wake of Salt trying to clear her name and prevent the machinations of a Russian terrorist sleeper cell from becoming a reality.
The plot borrows heavily from the Manchurian Candidate, Day of the Jackal and The Bourne Trilogy but offers up enough over the top action and loopy escapism that most viewers will likely be satisfied. In the end I wished that Salt had been Rated R instead of PG-13 fully embracing the visual insanity on screen and making the action a bit more visceral thus bringing the audience closer to the violent and turbulent world that Evelyn Salt occupies. The film also takes itself a bit too seriously and the muted color schemes often make location scenes bleed together but these criticisms aren’t enough to sink Salt and Angelina Jolie’s tour de force performance.
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Director: Phillip Noyce
Screenplay: Kurt Wimmer
Columbia Pictures
Release Date: July 23, 2010
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