A passable slice of entertainment

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2013)

SALT is a modern-day Hollywood spy thriller with a plot as preposterous as they come: Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who's falsely accused of being a Russian spy and is forced to go on the run from her former colleagues. It's one of those movies whose plot involves layering twist upon twist, identity upon identity, so that come the ending even the most steadfast viewers will be scratching their heads in puzzlement.
The movie proves to be fitfully entertaining, thanks to a lightning-fast pace that has no time for extraneous sub-plots or dreaded romance. It's focused and fluid, bringing a lot of energy in and keeping the momentum until the climax. The whole thing is indebted to the BOURNE series, of course, but there's no harm in that; if you're going to imitate something, then you might as well imitate the best.
The direction is lacklustre, though, which is a surprise given Aussie director Phillip Noyce's pedigree. This is the guy who brought us the excellent suspense flick DEAD CALM, after all, along with two decent spy thrillers in the form of the Harrison Ford/Jack Ryan movies. The dialogue scenes are fine, but Noyce mishandles the action. Most attempts to emulate Paul Greengrass's cinematography end in disaster, and this film is no exception.
Angelina Jolie, stick-figure thin and supposedly an expert fighter, is also miscast. Something strange has been happening to Jolie over the years; she was never a great actress, but she looked the part in the likes of the TOMB RAIDER films. Nowadays her extreme weight loss sits at odds with the physicality of the roles she plays and renders the fight scenes ridiculous. Liev Schreiber must be pretty bored playing another in a long line of similar roles, but look out for an excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor as the dogged cop on Jolie's trail.