Salt is superior entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2010)

Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA agent who is happily married to Mike (August Diehl), an arachnologist. They married after he arranged for her rescue when she was captured and tortured by the North Koreans. At the CIA headquarters Salt is asked by her colleagues Ted (Liev Schreiber) and Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to perform a quick interview with a Russian named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) who may have valuable information regarding an assassination plot. Orlov reveals that there is a plan to kill the Russian President, who is attending the funeral of the US Vice President and that there are numerous Russian spies at large in America. He identifies the name of one of the spies as Evelyn Salt. Ted and Peabody are distracted by two separate threads: the escape of Orlov after he kills two agents and then Salt herself, who quickly goes on the run because she cannot risk being detained in case Mike is in danger. It is unclear as to whether Salt as a fugitive is out to save or kill the Russian President herself.
On the surface this may seem like superfluous entertainment but Australian film director Phillip Noyce has turned Salt into a thrill ride of the highest order. He has made several exceptions to the standard action genre, most notably his efforts to ground the film in a high degree of realism. The stunts, like Salt leaping from one moving semi-trailer to another, may seem absurd but Noyce films them in such a way that he makes us feel the impact of every one of Salt's battles. Her tumbles and her fistfights look and feel real, partly because Jolie does all of her own stunt work. The bruises she receives, like the nerve damage to her eye at the beginning, appear with authenticity. It is thankful how sparingly Noyce uses a hand-held camera during the action too. He has stated that his film moves selectively from a tripod to a hand-held camera later on to smartly represent the change from stability to anarchy. Thus, even without high quantities of blood, Salt is intense and exciting because of the efficiency of Noyce's sturdy direction. While the action is spectacular and fun, Salt is also driven by a narrative that is surprisingly involving. There are a lot of fight scenes and biff but what makes this more engaging than usual is that we can never be entirely sure of Salt's allegiance to either the Russians or the USA. Many scenes cleverly work to manipulate the audience into thinking that she is working for one side and then subvert our expectations. The action not only provides the spectacle but works to develop the theme of espionage as well. Furthermore, as ludicrous as the plot is here, recent events like the exposure of undercover Russians secretly living in the USA makes the timing of Salt oddly appropriate.
Angelina Jolie is one of the few Hollywood actresses that could make the stunt work of Salt as credible as possible. The film was originally going to feature a male CIA agent and was first offered to Tom Cruise, who turned the part down. Thankfully, Jolie is perfectly cast as Salt, a woman who is tough, beautiful and most importantly, human. There are inspired touches given to her character. I loved how Salt decides to take her high-heeled shoes off the first time she escapes. It's a minor detail but one that most movie characters would forget and it adds to Salt's believability. There's another cool moment where Salt dyes her hair jet-black, just as her allegiance starts to become murky for the audience. Yet it's the brief flashbacks that are interspersed between the action scenes that give a greater sense to the happiness and the humanity shared between Salt and her husband. There is some heart to be found in Salt, both the character and the film. Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor have fairly stock roles here but at least the dialogue is minimal enough so that they do not embarrass themselves with overtly bureaucratic speeches, common in spy films like this.
Salt is a highly impacting and exciting action thriller because of the intensity of the direction by Phillip Noyce. He grounds the action with as much realism as possible, allowing the audience to become far more involved with the film's possible-heroine and her death defying stunts. The action is also regularly supported by a clever story that continually makes us question the true motives of Salt. Jolie's physically dominant performance here is impacting enough that the audience lives on almost every single punch and fall that she's involved in. Salt is superior entertainment.