Far fetched but contains plenty of excitement

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2011)

Salt is a fairly standard spy thriller; as it opens CIA agent Evelyn Salt is being freed from a North Korean prison and soon things are going well for her. Things turn worse though when a Russian agent walks in claiming that Salt is in fact a Russian sleeper agent planted many years previously. At first the CIA don't believe him but when Evelyn runs it looks as if he may have been telling the truth. As the drama progresses it look more and more likely that this is the case and her actions could start a war. She isn't the only potential sleeper agent and as the drama reaches its conclusion the viewer is left wondering whether Salt is an enemy agent trying to reach her target or whether she is in fact racing to protect the target from the true danger.
This wasn't a bad film but it did feel as though the creators though it was somewhat better than it really was; if they wanted to create a female Jason Bourne they didn't succeed. Angelina Jolie was good in the title role making the viewer believe in her character even though some of the stunts looked a little far-fetched. Other notable performances were Liev Schreiber as Salt's boss who appeared to keep his faith in her long after everybody else thought she was an enemy agent and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the secret service agent on her trail. If you want a bit of action with a few twists in it you could do a lot worse than this.