A film that plays hard to get but delivers

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2013)

Angelina Jolie is the true icon of what you would call a female that can fill in the shoes for any masculine role. And what kind of audience wouldn't want that? She's a role model for women because of her talent of displaying power in the feminine lead, and for the guys, she makes them drool because of her ability to be sexy while being powerful at the same time. A benefit for both ends of the stick and there is no doubt that Jolie will not give such a performance for a film with a premise like this.
The title is based on the main character, Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie), a CIA agent who is revealed to be a Russian spy sent on a mission with several other Russian spies to overthrow the United States of America. Once Salt realizes this, she flees from the government to try and discover why she is being sought after. Unfortunately (for her character), this leads to many twists and turns along the way. As for audiences' go this is probably the most troublesome part of the film.
Kurt Wimmer, an individual who isn't a novice to the film industry, but doesn't seem to have a true understanding of what audiences want or expect to see in their films, wrote the screenplay. The way the story is written is so up and down on who's on what side, can become really tiresome. It does allow the movie to create a sense of paranoia about who is really who, but it is not given in a fashion that makes it any more clear for the audience either. In fact, depending on how avid a film-goer you are, this movie may take more than one viewing to truly understand what went down in the whole film. It really can be frustrating at times to keep up with what viewpoint the main characters' have and what side they support.
Along with this, is the system of child hypnosis that a Russian antagonist puts on these "creations" of his. It is a really convoluted plot and sometimes it sounds just plain ridiculous. Also, anti-heroes are cool and have neat traits but for me, I just couldn't get over the fact of how Salt's character is always on the run. Yes she did fight (which I'll get to in a second) but a lot of the time she was fleeing from the authorities because she had NO ONE else to go to. Those kinds of plot lines annoy me because it feels like there's no hope for the character.
As for acting goes, the actors all portray their characters well and understandably. None seem out of place or overacted. Jolie's abilities to perform action are still there as well. She still has the muscle to throw herself and others around while looking attractive at the same time. She's always good at doing that. I also liked the transition that Jolie's character made from the beginning to the end of the film with the color of her hair. Light to dark always shows a change in character tone and it's shown very accurately.
As for James Newton Howard's musical score, I wasn't quite sure if he forgot how to portray emotion. His score definitely knows how to build tension with the blaring horns. But the emotional side of his music seems to be lacking. There are some vocals that reminisce of the Russian culture (which usually sounds tragic) but it doesn't occur frequently. Perhaps Howard missed these points in the film.
With Angelina Jolie back in her action boots, there's bound to be plenty of fun. However, the story is a little over the top and James Newton Howard's score is a little dry.