) and starring Angelina Jolie, is that her role wasn't written for her at all. It wasn't even written for anybody of her gender. Tom Cruise was inititally in the driver's seat, but dropped out at the last second due to scheduling conflicts, which led the door wide open for Jolie to slip into the high heels of Evelyn Salt. You'd think that re-writing the script for a different gender might pose a problem, but that's the least of Salt's issues. Despite Jolie's capable status as an action hero, not even she can navigate a story that seems intent on twisting itself into knots to keep us interested. Evelyn Salt is a high ranking official within the CIA, who finds her world thrown into chaos when a Russian defector shows up on their doorstep. Rather than just asking for asylum, he accuses her of being a spy, which naturally throws her boss and close friend Ted(Liev Schreiber) for a loop. Rather than explaining, she makes a violent escape from their custody and goes off in search of her husband. She believes he'll be kidnapped by the very same people trying to set her up. If only it were that simple.
Pursued not only by the CIA but by counterintelligence's top guy, Peabody(Chiwetel Ejiafor), Salt has become public enemy #1. Is she an enemy of the state? Or is she being framed? It's not long before she finds herself embroiled in a plot to kill the Russian president? How? You got me. Why? Ostensibly to discover her husband's whereabouts, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Since Salt is basically one great series of plot twists, I won't go further into detail. In fact, that's the biggest problem, that there seem to be no end to the character swerves. New characters are introduced so they can "twist" us just a few moments later. Some of these swings are irrational, and give the impression that the writers maybe saw Mission: Impossible 2 one time too many. I'm all for being setup and tricked, but when I start waiting for the next character to flip and then it happens that means something's gone terribly wrong. The nonsensical, ludicrous plot took precedent over me actually caring about anything that happened.It doesn't help that the script offers us nobody to really invest in. Without giving anything away, there are legit reasons to not exactly be in Salt's corner. Who do we root for? Me, I'm cheering for the guy who crafts her wigs.
Jolie is actually very good, even though I still have a hard time buying her as an action star nowadays. It's been a long time since Tomb Raider, and her pencil thin physique isn't doing her any favors in the credibility department. Still, she handles herself well, and I genuinely like the fact that her action sequences don't appear to have been toned down in the least with the gender switch. Some of her fights, in particular the final one, are extremely brutal. The supporting cast might as well not be there at all. Nobody plays buttoned up alpha males better than Schreiber does, but he's given very little to do here. Ejiafor, one of the most talented actors on the planet(watch him dominate in Redbelt
, for instance), has fallen into a rut of playing the same stiff character in every film. He's always the guy who wants to do right but is a step behind everybody else. Don't even get me started on the once great Andre Braugher(Homicide: Life on the Street
), who shows up basically to hand someone a telephone. He has exactly one more line than my cat and just as much white hair.The frantic pace never lets up, and there are some truly ingenious sequences, including a blistering chase through the city streets that makes the CIA look more like keystone cops than hardened professionals. The government is portrayed all that well in general here. If they aren't being overrun by traitors in their midst, whole squads are tripping over themselves like the Three Stooges in a sack race. It's hard to believe Salt is ever in any real danger when her pursuers don't seem as if they could catch a cold, much less a trained agent.
That's pretty much Salt in a nutshell. It can't be taken seriously, and in post-Bourne world action thrillers like this need to really bring their A-game. Salt has plenty of action and Jolie giving it her all, but a loose and emotionless story does it in. Do yourself a favor, pass on the Salt and go see something with a bit more flavor.
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