SALT, poses one question whose answer has serious ramifications for the nuclear aged world and which will, in my humble opinion, entrance the viewer to watching through to the credits for its resolution. Who is Evelyn Salt? However the mystery and dissembling agendas of this piece just barely make up for the unoriginal and lax dialogue and lack of character empathy I experienced throughout.
Angelina Jolie is, of course, stunning even in her various disguises and exhibits feminine strength and vengeance that is titillating but the convoluted plot, that begins well, is rather far-fetched and full of political agenda and fanatical terrorism. Espionage is notoriously sexy and Jolie handles this mission with her usual savvy and professional detachment.
Some of her survival kit inventions are indeed interesting and different to conventional machine gun overdoses. Who doesn’t want to see an athletic woman try to undermine national security with a glue gun and ball of string but the attempts at pace are distracted by sitcom clichéd flashbacks of sprouting love between Salt and her target, German academic husband (played August Diehl) that are shallow and saccharine as they attempt to form back-story and sympathy.
The cinematography is grey scale and macabre and the casting choices, somewhat obvious and spoilery, especially that of Liev Schreiber and Andre Braugher roles is unfortunately brief. Still it is spies and moles and conspiracy, handled in a different light and worth the watch but not the purchase. There is one vertigo inducing scene and an adorable dog plus spiders if that's your thing.
A story of the C.I.A. suspecting one of their own but not the conventional and idealistic agenda of clearing the hero’s name, it detaches from this sentimentality and skewers the perspective of right and wrong.
Hopefully the Russians will take this as pure entertainment and the Americans, once again, laugh at the incompetence and heavy handed methodology implied.
This film is another look at the ‘dark’ action hero with a personal agenda and weak allegiance and zero introspection. Salt is a breed warrior designed to be an autonomous drone and the attempts at making her appear ‘normal’ are uninventive and stereotypical.
Two and a half stars for this production, directed by Philip Noyce and running at 100minutes long.
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