Movie Review: Salt
Salt was originally written about a character named Edwin Salt, to be played by Tom Cruise. Cruise failed to commit to the script, citing conflicts with other projects and a fear that the character was too similar to Ethan Hunt, Cruise’s Mission Impossible alter ego. Given the timing of the two projects, it appears Cruise turned down Salt in favor of Knight and Day, an action-comedy in which he starred with Cameron Diaz earlier this summer.
Cruise picked the wrong flick.
After a gender-reassigning script revision, Salt now stars Angelina Jolie as CIA agent Evelyn Salt. During an interrogation, a Russian defector, Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), warns Salt of a secretive plot to assassinate the Russian president during his upcoming visit to America. The operation, dubbed “Day X” is intended to ignite conflict between the US and Russia and serve as the catalyst for a nuclear war that will eventually lead to the United States’ downfall. As the interview comes to a close, Orlov drops one last piece of information: the name of the Russian president’s assassin is Evelyn Salt, a highly trained Russian spy.
When brain scans performed on Orlov during the interview reveal that he is truthful, Salt is detained for questioning by her CIA partner, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) and Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a higher-ranking CIA official. As Orlov attempts to escape custody, creating a distraction, Salt breaks out of her holding room and flees – igniting speculation that she is, indeed, a Russian plant.
Angelina Jolie, as Evelyn Salt, spends the rest of the movie kicking-ass and taking names. She flees from some police officers and federal agents, while hunting down others. Her intent is never clear, and the audience is left wondering whether or not they should be rooting for or against her.
Salt is loaded with complex chase scenes, great fights and vigorous stunt-work. Jolie is at her best, embodying her character with an intensity and physicality that would put any male actor to shame. Having a female in the titular role takes nothing away from the film; instead, the change injects a sexiness that would not otherwise exist. On a purely visceral level, Salt succeeds spectacularly.
Unfortunately, if one takes a moment to stop and think about the plot, things get a bit shaky. The film wouldn’t work if we knew for certain if Salt was a Russian spy or a loyal CIA agent – the ambiguity is what makes things interesting. However, the mystery also makes the film a bit hard to follow. To maintain the mystery, the writers insert constant twists into the plot. The bad-guys become good-guys, the good-guys become bad-guys. Some make the switch multiple times – Evelyn Salt does it more times than can be counted. Also, the more we learn about the “Day X” conspiracy, the more ludicrous it becomes. We learn a lot, so it gets pretty silly by the end.
Each twist is less effective than the one before it; when there are this many, the impact vanishes pretty quickly. When Salt’s secret is finally revealed during the conclusion, it doesn’t hit very hard at all, emotionally speaking. Orlov’s original accusation is a bigger “wow” moment than the final resolution, which is a problem.
Still, Salt is pretty fun the whole way through. Jolie is always interesting to watch, and the action set-pieces are fantastic. It’s fast-paced and never dull, so it’s hard not to recommend for that reason alone. Grab a big bucket of popcorn, leave your brain at the door, and enjoy the ride.
