Salt - Movie Review

Salt felt derivative, but had some redeeming qualities. The plot had twists, but was about as contrived as they come. The film had plenty of eye candy, but with modesty. The film delivered exactly what I expected it to. It was an action film with nothing particularly new or interesting to offer. But fun to watch.

Jolie stars as CIA agent Evelyn Salt. The movie opens with Salt being tortured in a North Korean prison. Her husband Mike (August Diehl) is there to meet her. While Mike plays into the action at times, we only briefly meet him through flashbacks. His entire relationship was a set up and we don't ever really get a sense of who he is or why Salt eventually warms to him. In fact, almost as quickly as we finish catching a bit of back-story in North Korea, the current action begins pulsating forward.

Salt is preparing for a special occasion with Mike. Her partner Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) has a plane to catch. As the two are leaving for the day there is a "walk in." A former Russian spy who has an important message to deliver to the CIA. Salt and Winter proceed to the interview room to quickly dispose of this nuisance, who is likely just another nutcase. They are joined by security specialist Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The walk in is a spy known as Orlov (Daniel Obrychski). Special brain scans indicate he is telling the truth. He advises of a plot to kill the Russian President who will be attending the funeral of the US Vice President. He names the Russian spy who will murder the President as Evelyn Salt. Then all hell breaks loose.

Orlov manages to escape from a secure CIA front company. Salt also manages to escape in spite of a series of trap door mechanisms that she seems able to defeat (it seemed much more plausible that she would simply have overpowered the receptionist at the front desk and made a break for the front door when she was fifteen yards from it). Instead, we get to see Salt go McGuyver on her associates before making her Bourne Identity like escape. The resulting chase scene has plenty of great action, but is pretty ridiculous and completely contrived.

In a prophetic nod to the Russian sleeper cells that were discovered a few years after this film was made, it seems that an entire army of Russian spies has infiltrated the United States at every level. They are the ultimate sleeper cells just waiting for Orlov's command to activate. The wheels are in motion for the complete annihilation of the United States from within. While the pre-positioning of assets makes no sense and relies on an incredible lining up of unpredictable scenarios, somehow Orlov's plot gets traction and culminates in a predictable but interesting climax.

Salt doesn't give us much new material to digest. How many films are really that original? At least films in this genre. Bourne Identity was fairly fresh but even that film had derivative qualities. How was the film for pure entertainment purposes? The characters were okay, with a few given mild complexity, but several are overlooked completely. We don't get to explore much in the way of relationships or how we got to our current place in the film. The plot was manipulative. Much of it was predictable. Objectively, I should hate this film. But I didn't. I was entertained. Yes, Angeline could have at least exposed her ankles or something. But the big special effects were enough to keep my mind from wandering too far. I guess I am a product of my environment because I thought the film was decent enough to recommend.

Salt was well cast. That helped. Jolie had already done enough action films to have the street cred for this role. She handled it efficiently even with the flaws in her character. She does a decent job of keeping us guessing whether she is the bad guy or not. Schreiber was predictable, but that was more the character. His performance was convincing. Ojiofor had the flattest character but managed to bring some charm to the role in spite of the writing. The three central characters were a product of strong casting.

*Salt was rated PG-13 by the MPAA. The rating stems from violence, which is never really gory. It is a pretty tame movie. The action sequences are intense, but that is the type of film this is. It delivers in that one area, making it worthwhile. I would not restrict this film by any age category. It was pretty tame. The film has a run time of one hour, forty minutes.

I don't know why I enjoyed Salt. It is hard to put my finger on it. It was derivative, hackneyed, manipulative and lacked foundation and character development. In a perfect world I would pan this film. But the action sequences, as corny as they were, seemed fun to watch. The film paints the characters into a box and then allows us to guess the outcome. While it was somewhat predictable, it was nice to see how the scenes unfolded. The quality of the scenes were polished. The casting was strong. There were just enough good qualities in this film to make it worthwhile. 6/10.

Photos and trailer subject to copyright by Columbia Pictures.