Rating:  

Relativity Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Wintergreen Productions and Columbia Pictures.

Written by: Kurt Wimmer with uncredited work by Brian Helgeland.

One of the more intriguing films on the 2010 summer schedule, Angelina Jolie launches the potential action franchise, “Salt”, in a landscape where virtually every action star is male. Jolie, save a few mistakes early on in her meteoric rise to the A-list (“Life Or Something Like It”, anyone?), has often found interesting and compelling characters to bring to the multiplex. Her latest character, Evelyn Salt, rewritten as a female character after Tom Cruise stepped away from the project early in its development, certainly fits the bill. Unfortunately, the vehicle used to bring her to life is a deficient one that wastes a go-for-broke performance by Angelina Jolie and becomes suffocated by its own improbability.

As someone who typically does not spoil twists and turns, there is very little I can share about “Salt”‘s plot after the first 15 minutes or so. At a brisk and kinetic 93 minutes in total, Kurt Wimmer’s script drops us right into an intense opening sequence where a woman is being tortured by members of the North Korean military. Repeatedly, the woman insists she is not a spy. After the United States negotiates her release, with assistance from her husband, we learn that this woman is CIA Operative Evelyn Salt, one of the most respected and revered intelligence officers in the U.S. government’s employ. Moving forward a couple of years, Salt works hand-in-hand with Tom Winter (Liev Schreiber) and on the day of her second wedding anniversary, a colleague, Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) informs Salt and Winter that a “walk-in” has arrived.

Believing that this “walk-in” will be of minimal importance, a simple interrogation is set up between Salt and Russian defector, Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), who reports that a hit will be made on the Russian President in Washington, D.C. during the funeral of America’s Vice-President. Orlov continues to talk despite Salt’s dismissing of the information as crazed silly speak, and reveals a bigger plot is in place to kill the American President. Worse yet, Orlov reveals that there is a sleeper cell of Russian agents in the D.C. area and one spy in particular will lead the charge. As Salt attempts to exit the interrogation room, Orlov informs her and the listening intelligence officers in the next room that the spy’s name is Evelyn Salt. When Evelyn questions Orlov’s naming her as the Russian spy, he states the information again, causing Salt to panic and flee the scene.

It is at that very moment, when the uncertainty of whether or not Salt is trusted CIA or a rogue Russian sleeper agent, that “Salt” becomes engrossing, intrinsically more involving than it should be, and equally as absurd. Once Winter and Peabody order lockdown to contain Salt and question her, Jolie’s months of training in the role payoff. Dismantling faceless official after official, Salt sets out to find her husband and save herself. Or does she? The movie poster says, “Who is Salt?”…so by indicating that the Angelina Jolie is involved a mystery of identity is not a spoiler by any stretch.

During the course of the nonstop action sequences, Jolie’s Salt is a Mensa-level student of her trade. She can transform her identity like a chameleon, knocks out and/or kills more people than Jason Bourne ever has and manipulates every situation to her gain. Director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) goes about as far as he can with a PG-13 rating, embedding the viewer in action sequences that result in a fair number of casualties, all virtually at the hands of Salt. And I have to say, in some ways, it is a refreshing image to see Jolie so dominant a presence on screen in this type of action movie. Now if you take that as a comment made simply because Jolie is a woman, I would begrudge you that. Except to say, Jolie owns the screen and by doing much of her own stunt work and things equal to or better than many of her male action movie counterparts, then I think pointing out her gender, in this regard, can be forgiven and perhaps applauded.

Jolie runs, literally, through the film effortlessly. However, the one thing standing in Salt’s way – the element she cannot shoot, destroy, defeat, or outrun is Kurt Wimmer’s empty-headed screenplay. In an action film with espionage and spies and international bad guys, you have to accept levels of implausibility. However, as the intricacies of Salt’s identity and motivations are brought to light, the movie reaches ridiculousness with the leaps of faith it asks the viewer to take. In capturing Salt’s character impressively, Wimmer simply falls on tired cliche and improbability in his muddled landscape where present day America is still in fear of Cold War-era Russia, the groan-inducing nuclear weapons storyline resurfaces yet again, and loyalties are always in question. I suppose if, as is apparent in the film’s final scene, this is intended to be the start of a series of “Salt” films, then I might be able to forgive some of the logic which gets cast aside here. However, we only have one film to look at. A silly and goofy third act snuffs out all that is great about the film and the intensity and strong work by Jolie and Noyce simply gets wasted by the end. Although, I will say that near the end of the film, one character is killed in one of the most original manners I have seen in quite some time. The act elicited cheers and “OMG”‘s from those around me, so credit Wimmer with that, I suppose.

Ultimately, with “Salt” we have an action film which may spawn sequels and make a bank vault’s worth of money. For Angelina Jolie’s efforts, the technical work, and Phillip Noyce’s intense presentation, I hope so. Saddled with issues that I personally could not ignore, “Salt” is nonetheless entertaining and probably goes down nice with concessions. Let’s just hope that the concessions we might make with a “Salt 2″ feature are limited to those of a soda, candy, and popcorn variety.

Should I See It?

Angelina Jolie. For reasons both obvious and not-so obvious, she owns the film. She delivers a must-see performance in a overall mediocre film.

This is the summer action-blockbuster where you can check your head at the box office and simply sit back and be entertained. In some ways, the antithesis of “Inception”, even with some twists and turns in the movie.

It looks terrific, is filmed and edited tight and intense, and has some amazing stunt work and action sequences. Technically, the film’s execution is top notch and visually appealing.

You cannot help but think about the movie you are watching while you are watching it. If you buy the storyline of Evelyn Salt, then what about the motivations of other characters, agents, dignitaries, and one character’s shift between “good” and “bad.”? Applying thought disintegrates the things the film does well.

The themes of Russia vs. America, nuclear weapons, the Cold War – the film feels like it should have existed 15-25 years ago with all the tired rehashing of old themes.

For younger viewers, the film is intense with violent content for its PG-13 rating. Skimping on blood secures the younger rating, but the movie has a great deal of sudden and voluminous violence which may be a problem for some viewers.