Stunning Jolie slums it well in tight thriller

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2010)

Salt, a spy movie about a CIA agent who may or may not actually be a Soviet agent, is a heck of a lot better than others in its genre. It has a lot of pulse-quickening action, astounding stunt work, and a semiplausible plot. Oh, and someone named Angelina Jolie to do all the requisite butt-kicking.
There have been plenty of psychological thrillers in which the protagonist is double crossed, then triple crossed, and so on until the audience quite literally has no idea who's on what side or who's doing what to whom - it's sort of an entertainment by obfuscation. Sleight of hand. It's when the director tries hard to confuse the bejeezus out of everyone, the better to disguise a thin plot and cardboard acting.
But that isn't true here. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA analyst who's accused - from the get-go - of being a sleeper spy, by a Russian attempting to defect. Naturally, our gal Evelyn bolts the CIA and goes on the run. But unlike other movies, where the balance of the plot would be devoted to her finding the Real Bad Guys and Righting Wrongs and Clearing Her Name, this film keeps us guessing: Is Salt really a preprogrammed spy with the goal of assassinating the visiting Russian president? Her CIA boss (Liev Shrieber) and the head of counterintelligence (Chiwetel Ejiofor) dash off to New York to catch her, and she eludes them at every step. And all the while, we're not sure if she's a good guy or a bad guy, or a good guy with bad intentions, or perhaps a good guy with a shady past.
And although the ending isn't neat and tidy, it's also not implausible, another hallmark of run-of-the-mill spy thrillers. It's refreshing.
Angelina Jolie has shown time and time again that she supersedes all of those preconceived ideas of pretty actresses. She's beautiful, yes, but she's also a very gifted actress. It's in full evidence here, as her Salt dons numerous disguises that really do a good job of hiding her amazing looks. Lesser actresses would wilt under the pressure of, you know, actually performing as opposed to being gawked at, but Jolie flourishes. And she has some serious action-movie chops, too! Apparently, she did her own stunts, and she's simply electrifying. It's easy to believe that her role was originally written for a male lead - what in Hollywood isn't? - but it's hard to imagine many top-shelf actors doing as much with the role as Jolie does here. As with the best actors, Jolie can do a lot with the slightest bit of movement or expression. She is mesmerizing and tremendous.
She's ably supported by Shrieber and Ejiofor, and although neither character is particularly fleshed out, neither, too, is obvious and shallow. So, good script from Kurt Wimmer.
Oh, sure, there's a spot midway through the movie where you begin to consider the possibilities of what Salt's up to, where the script's headed, and you figure out what the big twist at the end is going to be. Or maybe I just got lucky. Probably the biggest obstacle that writers of psychological thrillers face is the plot corner, where they've made things so intricate that they can't write themselves out of their own traps. Here, there are only a few possible outcomes, so it's not too tough to figure out what will eventually happen - the trick is that Noyce and Wimmer make getting to that eventuality a rough, perilous journey.
All in all, Salt is the kind of movie that, say, Eagle Eye or Repo Men or State of Play or even Knight and Day wish they were. It's expertly directed by Noyce, who also has given us Patriot Games and the overlooked Rabbit Proof Fence and features a powerful performance by Angelina Jolie. Oh, and in case there was any doubt, it's sequel-ready.