Loaded With Sodium!!!

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2010)

Angelina Jolie puts on her bad-girl, butt-kicking britches in "Patriot Games" director Phillip Noyce's espionage melodrama "Salt" and shows what one elite lady can do against greater numbers and outlandish odds. This electrifying, surprise-laden thriller resembles director Don Siegel's Cold War era actioneer "Telefon" (1977) where KGB agent Charles Bronson dealt with a similar threat from Communist sleeper cell agents awakened by a renegade Russian ready to ignite a nuclear war. The chief difference in "Salt" is that our attractive protagonist is one of the sleeper cell agents! Clocking in at a breathless 100 minutes, this edge-of-the-seat spy movie never exhausts its get-up-and-go. Our nimble, quick-witted, super-sexy heroine smashes anybody who defies her. In fact, nothing man-made can halt her. She is as much an inexorable force here as the male hit-man was in the Coen Brothers' epic "No Country for Old Men." No matter what either the C.I.A. or the N.Y.P.D. try to do to thwart her, Salt keeps on kicking. No situation is so foolproof that she cannot out-fox the opposition. Unfortunately, Noyce and "Ultraviolet" scenarist Kurt Wimmer sacrifice credibility as well as characterization along the way to maintain their high velocity. Eventually, at some point, you'd think somebody would throw caution to the wind and simply put some lead through Salt's head. Of course, this cannot happen because the movie would grind to an abrupt end. Watching "Salt" is the equivalent of reading a page-turning best-seller that you cannot put down. Moreover, "Salt" is the kind of thriller that requires your constant attention. Leave your seat for either the concession stand or the restroom and you will find yourself baffled when you return. Believe it or not, Tom Cruise turned down this thriller to make "Knight and Day."
"Salt" opens like the James Bond thriller "Die Another Day." C.I.A. agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") has fallen into the hands of the North Koreans, and they interrogate and torture her for information that she refuses to divulge under any kind of pressure. The evil North Koreans cry uncle and exchange Salt for one of their agents that the Americans have. Salt learns from her superior, C.I.A. agent Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), that her German arachnologist husband, Mike Krause (August Diehl of "Inglourious Basterds"), exerted maximum pressure to effect a prisoner exchange. No sooner has our considerably relieved heroine flown back to Washington than another crisis occurs. As she is about to leave the building, an older Russian walks into the agency and gives himself up. Before the C.I.A. does anything else, they decide to grille him. Since Salt is fluent in Russian, she handles the interrogation while Winter and fellow C.I.A. agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "2012") watch her through a one-way window. Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski of "Tin Drum") explains that a sleeper cell of highly trained agents is going to murder Russian President Matveyev (Olek Krupa of "The Italian Job") when he attends the funeral of the Vice President in New York City. Moreover, Orlov elaborates that these agents were indoctrinated from childhood and boast skills that make them unstoppable. Worse, he puts the finger on Evelyn.
Naturally, Salt denies Orlov's allegations, and Winter throws up his hands in disgust when Peabody puts too much stock in Orlov's story. Salt's case is not helped when a C.I.A. technician observes that Orlov breezed through the lie detector test without a glitch. Winter is prepared to overlook these outrageous allegations, but Peabody shows greater reluctance. When Peabody tries to arrest her, Salt slips through his hands and eludes every security guard and lockdown procedure in the building. Salt plunges into D.C. traffic and moves by leaps and bounds from one truck to the next with the C.I.A. smoking tires at her heels. This is one of those thrillers where nothing is impossible for the heroine. She can cling to a high-balling, 18-wheeler in rush hour traffic with one hand and can dive from one vehicle on a higher level of a clover leaf overpass to another vehicle beneath without a care in the world. Coincidence is her best ally. Salt can do no wrong.
This abbreviated synopsis will have to suffice for the time being. Revealing the surprises that ensue would sabotage the suspense and tension that Noyce and Wimmer generate with this PG-13 adventure. There are moments when Salt imitates the TV troubleshooter MacGyver and constructs a weapon with items lying around that are not practical weapons. The problem with all of this is that any alert audience member will spot the holes that Noyce and Wimmer do a fairly decent job of concealing. Several inexplicable moments occur that bother Peabody while Winter never stops defending Salt against the accusations, no matter how far out on a limb our heroine dances. "Salt" isn't a performance-oriented spectacle. Too many things happen and the revelations that keep pace with these changes are designed to make you think one way while the filmmakers are setting up their next surprise. At another point, only when the villain decides to launch a nuclear warhead against the Arabs does "Salt" look like a post-Cold War thriller. While Noyce's movie surpasses Jolie's two "Tomb Raider" flicks, "Salt" isn't as interesting as either "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or the equally audacious "Wanted."