Salt, a Review of Angelina Jolie's Epic Spy Thriller

Salt opened to large crowds, as expected, for this action thriller. Angelina Jolie, female action star extraordinaire takes us on a wild ride of action and suspense while in the news real Russian spies are being uncovered today. Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Defiance) is CIA agent Ted Winter, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity, Children of Men) is FBI agent Peabody. From the mind of writer of Equilibrium, Ultraviolet, and Law Abiding Citizen, Kurt Wimmer brings many of his past film influences together in the character of Evelyn Salt. Directed by Phillip Noyce, Salt is rated PG-13 and has plenty of smart action.

The film begins with Evelyn Salt (Jolie) being tortured in a North Korean prison. Later she is released in a prisoner exchange meeting up with the man who later becomes her husband, Mike Krause (August Diehl - Inglourious Basterds). Evelyn returns to her job at the CIA and working with her colleague Ted Winter (Schreiber), and after a long day at the CIA office, Evelyn and Ted are on their way out, when they are told they have a "walk-in." A Russian defector has come into CIA HQ and says he has valuable information, the two head for the interrogation room, where they meet FBI agent Peabody (Ejiofor) and they confront a man by the name of Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). After a brief confrontation between Orlov and Salt, she gets up to leave; Orlov, in his thick Russian accent says, that a Russian Agent has come to the United States to kill the Russian President, who is attending the funeral of the American Vice President. Huh? Russians killing Russian? Of course, this most likely lead to war, this would outrage the Russians who would strike first. Here's the kicker, the Russian agent, Orlov says is -- Evelyn Salt. Immediately, FBI agent Peabody jumps in and wants to hold agent Salt. Winters, defends his colleague, and remains calm. Taking Orlov to a holding cell, he breaks free, (didn't they strip search him?) killing his guards and escapes. In the confusion, Salt breaks out of the interrogation room where she was held and she too escapes, seemingly worried about her husband. This takes place all in the first twenty minutes and sets the frantic Borne-like pace for the most of this picture.

What director, Phillip Noyce does best, is that he sets Salt apart from films like Shooter, Eagle Eye, and Vantage Point, in that he gives us clues little by little as the action unfolds -- teasing us with little bits of information to cause one to speculate and postulate, who is who in this film. Revealing early in the film that a master spy, had trained Russian children from birth (Hitman) to infiltrate the United States. The children become sleeper agents that were exchanged early in their childhood. Information is fed to Ejiofor's character's cell phone as FBI analysts (all crime shows have geeky analyst feeding information) to him revealing details about Salt's past. Another thing Noyce does well, is the close quarter combat fights that unlike, the Jason Bourne films, left the audience seasick. Reading up on the story, I found that the part of Salt was supposedly supposed to be a man, but changed for Jolie to a woman. Which leads me to believe that writer Kurt Wimmer, may have had the original Salt dress in drag for one Mission-Impossible-like scene. Other scenes in the film are complete red herrings designed to throw the audience off, but are subtle enough not to annoy. If I were to tell you about them, of course, I would have to kill you.

James Newton Howard's musical score is odd in this film, at points being very James Bond spy-ish, and at other times moving into choral or classical motifs. The Batman Begins composer brings the music in very gently at times and at other times is somewhat overpowering. The stunts for the film are exceptional and as mentioned before not nauseating in that you can follow the action. The story unfolds at a decent pace, and is intertwined with action to keep you paying attention for details. Chiwetel Ejiofor's character, however, is in some ways, a dead giveaway to how the story will turn out. If you have seen Serenity, where he plays an Alliance Operative, chasing Nathan Fillion and crew around the universe, then you may figure out where Ejiofor is going with his Peabody character. He does that part well, and in the end, the result is predictable. Liev Schreiber does well as either the good guy or the bad guy in a film and just watching him in Salt made me want to re-watch Defiance just to review his performance again. Angelina Jolie, looking pale and a bit gaunter than in past appearances, however, does an excellent job at keeping the audience from guessing until the end where her loyalties lay. No sex or romance, Salt is a pure action spy thriller intent on doing one thing, entertain you for 100 minutes of your life.