Angelina Jolie Saves ‘Salt’

By JENNIFER CHAN
Bulatlat.com

No stranger to action movies, Jolie once again takes up the role of a mysterious gun-toting vixen in Salt (directed by Phillip Noyce). This time, she plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt. Suspected to be a mole planted by Russian intelligence, she makes a run for it, leaving two of her contemporaries Peabody (Chiwetel Ejofor) and Ted Winter (Live Schreiber) conflicted and confused.

At first glance, Salt does not seem to be any different from the standard spy fare out there. It may not even be remotely interesting especially if one does not care for action movies. So a CIA agent is wrongly accused of being a spy—what else is new? Jolie is, as always, great with the stunts and gives everyone miniature heart attacks for every jump she does. Ejofor is intimidating on screen as his character determinedly chases after Salt while Schreiber, who people recognize as Sabertooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, serves as the all too loyal friend.

But that’s just the groundwork for what awaits audiences.

Salt is “exposed” by Russian defector Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) who claims that an agent from the K.G.B. will be assassinating the Russian president when he attends the funeral of America’s vice-president. The agent is said to have been trained in all things American since childhood, making it easy for her to infiltrate any U.S. organization. The agent’s name is Evelyn Salt. It almost sounds like a ridiculous accusation considering Salt is the one conducting the interrogation but the film moves quick and soon the suspicions against Salt seem all too real.

So who is Evelyn Salt exactly?

Is she a CIA agent or a Russian sleeper spy? A good wife? A good friend? Is everything in her life fabricated?

Despite her outstanding ability to jump from one speeding truck to another and her ability to create a crazy rocket launcher from random stockroom supplies, Salt is far from stone-hearted. Audiences may be kept guessing about her allegiance but she does seem to have genuine affections for her husband Mike Krause (August Diehl) whom she desperately tries to locate as soon as she breaks free from the CIA. Most of the time, her actions are contradicting and as the story goes on, it becomes clear that there is more to Salt than just another agent. It’s just too bad that the movie doesn’t delve that much deeper into her character as it could have.

Still, Salt is quite impressive as a one-army woman able to break her way into anything. At one point, she even dares to travel down an elevator shaft as if the ledges were just a hop, skip and jump away from each other. She allows herself to be captured and yet busts out of her handcuffs while still on the road. She is uncannily fearless in the face of danger and amazingly resourceful. There is a singular purpose to all her actions, a focus that makes her a one-of-a-kind agent.

All these things make people associate Salt with the successful Bourne movies but although Salt is quite entertaining, it lacks a solid foundation. The details are sometimes in disarray and unlike the Bourne movies, Salt cannot be taken as seriously. The movie is more for the general public’s entertainment than for the audiences seeking brain-busting conspiracies.

To be quite honest, the movie would probably have been a dismal flop had they chosen somebody else to play the lead. Jolie obviously has the face and the body for the role but points should also be given to director Noyce for his attempt to distract audiences from her physical attributes long enough for them to focus on her performance. As early as the beginning of the movie, Jolie is shown at her most unglamorous—bloodied, tortured and with one very, very swollen eye. It’s heartbreaking and well, quite disturbing to see someone at the brink of death.

Ultimately, despite some of the movie’s interesting twists and turns, it is still Jolie’s performance that makes Salt worth watching. (Bulatlat.com)

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