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Evelyn Salt, Angelina Jolie proves she has the chops to be a James Bond-esque action star because her new film Salt uses less CGI and more real stunts.

Salt:  A Sodium-Rich, Highly-Processed Tidbit

BY SANDRA OLMSTED

Director Philip (Catch a Fire) Noyce’s spy thriller has everything the genre demands except for a plausible plot, and while a plot with so many big holes would be a problem for other films, Salt’s shoddy plot is no obstacle to entertaining the audience because  Noyce puts the thrill back in thriller.

James Newton Howard’s original music, Scott Chambliss’s production design, Stuart (Edge of Darkness) Baird, John (Duplicity) Gilroy, and Steven (Legion) Kemper’s editing, and Robert (The Men Who Stare at Goats) Elswit’s cinematography expertly enhance the thrills in Noyce’s nonstop, roll-coaster-esque chase, and the film is just one perfectly-timed chase. In addition to those exciting action sequences, Salt has a great cast headlined by Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber.

However, the film has its problems.  Coming on the heels of the bust of the inept Russian spy ring, Salt tastes like a highly-processed throwback to the Cold War Era, which makes resurrecting evil Russian spies a hard sell.

The spy thriller genre demands that there be a threat to the West and the world from the constructed “other” du jour, aka the bad guy in current popular culture.  Unfortunately, Noyce chooses for his villain the pre-glasnost Russian government, and the script by Kurt Wimmer hypothesizes that the old Russian KGB brainwashed a bunch of children, substituted them for American children killed by “accident” behind the Iron Curtain, and plans to wake them up to start another world war.  Why another world war will be of advantage to the new Russian government, supporters of the old USSR, or whoever is behind this plan is never really explained.  Maybe it is explained while the audience is distracted by the excitement and blinding speed of the action sequences which provide a great cover for the many story problems.

The question posed by nearly every scene is whether Evelyn Salt, the CIA agent who endured two years of torture in North Korea for the US, is a Russian sleeper spy awakened to kill the Russian president on US soil and start a war, or whether she is loyal to America.

Once Agent Salt is on the run from her one-time colleagues at the CIA, from herself and her past, and from her Russian handlers, the film moves so fast that nothing else seems to matter, much to Noyce’s credit.  Of course, Noyce has a great team.  Howard’s original music aptly accentuates each and every twist, turn, and surprise in the escalating action sequences, chases, and fight scenes.

Chambliss’s compelling visual look for the film and Baird, Gilroy, and Kemper’s tight editing and quick cutting of Elswit’s carefully framed shots create a powerful momentum that is as much of an unstoppable force of nature as Evelyn Salt herself is portrayed to be.

As Evelyn Salt, Angelina Jolie (Wanted) proves she has the chops to be a James Bond-esque action star because the film uses less CGI and more real stunts.  At one point, courtesy of latex, Jolie even plays a man, which masculinizes the character of Salt, as if she isn’t masculinized enough by outrunning, outfighting, and outwitting every nemesis.  Liev Schreiber (Repo Men) is prefect as Salt’s CIA colleague, Ted Winter, who never believes she would betray her country.  As actors, both Jolie and Schreiber play their characters close to chest so that the surprises in the story are not completely revealed ahead of the big finale.

Other notable performances come from Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012) who plays US Agent Peabody, the government official who is determined to stop Salt, Daniel Olbrychski (So Much for Justice!) who plays Orlov, the Russian agent who trained the children and wants to awaken his sleeper spies, and August Diehl who plays Salt’s husband Mike Krause,

As long as one doesn’t think too hard about the plot, Noyce’s Salt is worth seeing for the wild ride and unadulterated, highly-processed entertainment.  Perhaps the big question of who Evelyn Salt is — a cold war spy, damaged goods, operative turned rogue do-gooder, or loyal US citizen — will be answered in the sequel(s) which the film sets up.

Salt, a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and runs 100 minutes.

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