Salt but no pepper

Rating: 3/10 (4 January 2011)

This is a silly film. Unbelievable and fantasy yet set in contemporary DC in the post-cold war present. However, for the sake of a shallow storyline, audiences are introduced to Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who leads several agents through the streets of the metropolitan capital in search of her husband, a dedicated spider-specialist at the Smithsonian. After she is accused by a Russian defector of being a sleeper spy, Salt runs, leaps, and bounds over cars, people, trucks, and subway turnstiles to avoid capture by CIA spy guys who quickly turn on her in the the name national security. Why all these men are so easily turned against the beautiful agent who was so valuable the CIA traded for her release from North Korean capture is never rationalized. Nor, why no one ever bothers to check references by those who quickly rush to judgment over the accusations of the evil "defector". Nothing in this film bothers to have much credibility, it is simply a vehicle to showcase Ms. Jolie's ability to run and jump without fear of gravity and down shots of vodka with her Russian spy brothers.
Believable is Liev Schriber as Salt's colleague/supervisor who keeps the hounds of investigation at bay, yet seems to have cornered the market on playing duplicitous government plants and credible agents. Ms. Jolie, beautiful yet too skinny to be a roustabout, is miscast in a film that tries to lead toward a future sequel yet is sorely lacking the basic structure of a taut compelling storyline such as the Jason Bourne films. Simply a chase and run film for the sake of car crashes and closeups of Jolie's stunning looks, this endeavor wastes time and money.