Film Review: Salt

Angelina Jolie/ Liev Schreiber/ Daniel Olbrychski/ Chiwetel Ejiofor, Directed by Phil Noyce

This is not a film to take seriously: it is an appealing visual romp, aided by tight direction from Phil Noyce. The recently revealed presence of a group of Russian sleepers operating in the U.S., however, lends credibility to a well worn plot.

Salt, the film, opens with Salt, the CIA agent, being brutally tortured by thuggish North Koreans immediately prior to her exchange for a captured North Korean agent. She is met at the Panmunjom Border, strangely enough, by Michael her arachnologist, (a scientist who studies spiders), husband-to-be and colleague Ted Winter.

Back at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Salt and Ted Winter prepare to leave work for the night when they’re asked to question an alleged KGB/FSB defector, Orlov, who just happens to walk-in off the street.

Orlov denounces Salt as a Russian sleeper – one of many infiltrated into America as children after being indoctrinated in a KGB camp. Orlov should know – he set up and ran the camp. In the elevator Orlov kills his two CIA guards as they escort him from the interrogation room and flees into the city.

Ted Winter is supportive of Salt’s presumed innocence but Peabody, the head of security is less sympathetic and orders her arrest. She, too, runs in an attempt to prove her innocence – or, if she is a sleeper, to carry out her assignment. The assignment has something to do with the President of Russia, in Washington D.C. to attend the funeral of his friend, the former Vice President.

The chase scenes and spectacular stunts that follow Salt are testimony to Jolie’s ability, fitness and tolerance for pain, although some accolades are due to Eunice Huthart, her stunt double. Jumping from an overpass onto a speeding truck, and then from one truck to another, Salt provides some nail-biting excitement as the plot threatens to spin out of control.

"It's (Jolie’s) enthusiasm for those action sequences that makes her such a unique performer at this point in time," says Noyce. "There's something else. Arguably she's one of the world's most attractive and photogenic people and there's something thrilling about watching that particular icon in some of those action scenes combining brains with brawn. It's something that provides extra entertainment for men and women." "She enjoys heights and beating up men", he says, laughing.

It's a pleasure to see such a well-directed action movie. The early scenes create a feeling of impending danger; later on, the action scenes are often filmed with a hand-held camera, but Noyce does not rely on a zoom lens, over-edited style. Salt is an object lesson in how to bring ‘action on steroids’ to a modern audience.

At the funeral Salt single-handedly thwarts a zillion security guards surrounding the president’s of U.S.A. and Russia and takes out the Russian in a quite spectacular manner, devastating the church in the process. (Hint: what role does the spider venom play).

While the search for her continues, Salt is taken by Orlov to a rusting barge on the Washington shores. The barge is concealing a group of Russian sleepers, many of whom Salt remembers from the Russian spy training camp. She finds her kidnapped husband, Michael, bound and gagged on the floor. Probably the most stupid order Orlov can give at this stage is the one to shoot Michael. This, being a film, is exactly what he does. In turn, Evelyn Salt kills Orlov and each of the Russians on the barge.

She enters the White House as an aide to a Russian NATO liaison officer: presumably to kill the President and/or ensure the launch of the US nuclear arsenal, although even now I’m not sure which. You’ll have to see the film to learn how it ends, as there are a few enigmatic twists and turns before the dénouement.

The end of the film left me with one major and one minor question. The major question: was Salt a Russian sleeper who went rogue and decided not to carry out her ultimate assignment, or was she being framed. The minor question: will there be a sequel – the open ending suggests there very well could be.