The Brag

Salt
Released August 19, 2010

Inception aside, it’s been a pretty mediocre year for the mainstream action blockbuster. In this climate, Salt is a breath of fresh air, a breezily entertaining, straightforward action film. Oh, it’s completely ridiculous, and features acts of gymnastic wizardry by Angelina Jolie’s svelte spy that would shatter the bones of any mortal being. But then, Jolie is no mere mortal. Jason Bourne or James Bond, whatever the male-equivalent (in fact, Salt was originally written for Tom Cruise), she is captivating in a role designed to keep the audience unsure of her true allegiances.

Is Evelyn Salt a Russian-spy, undercover in the CIA ranks, tasked with bringing down her nation’s Cold War enemies from within? Or is she what she claims she is – a patriotic CIA officer? Her taciturn boss (Liev Schreiber) believes the former, while his sidekick, played by the always-reliable Chiwetel Ejiofor, is not so sure. They’re at odds with each other as Salt careens from one action set-piece, and one lorry rooftop, to the next. Meanwhile a shadowy syndicate muses over superpower-toppling schemes that include an assassination plot on the visiting Russian President. (Between this and the fourth Indiana Jones, the Russians seem to be making a comeback as movie villains.)

Salt is hokum worthy of ’60s camp, but Aussie director Phillip Noyce and his actors play it straight. In its favour, Noyce is a master craftsman with an assured sense of space. His action sequences rely largely on practical special effects and exhibit Jolie’s physical prowess as much as her stunt doubles’. Particularly effective is an early scene where Salt busts out of the CIA with a home-made rocket launcher (made MacGyver style with available tools), and a fraught highway escape that involves our heroine indulging in some back seat driving with a stun gun. James Newtown Howard’s punchy score adds to the top technical credentials, but it’s Jolie, all steadfast glares and skittering feet, that glues the pic together.

3.5/5

Joshua Blackman