Salt

So just who is Salt? Well it’s Angelina Jolie actually! Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent, retired from the field, desk job, happily married. That is until a Russian defector turns up in her building and calmly explains that actually she is a Russian spy and will kill the Russian president within 24 hours! The CIA obviously want to question Salt; but knowing it’s not going to end well, she escapes, and so a woman-hunt is started. Then Salt kills the Russian president. Or does she?

I had no preconceptions about this film before I saw it; the only thing I knew is that Angelina Jolie was in it. So I found I actually quite enjoyed it. Without being anything amazing or spectacular it was really quite entertaining. Jolie is good as the all action 007/Jason Bourne/Lara Croft CIA agent; Liev Schreiber is very watchable as the other CIA agent; and Chiwetel Ejiofor ends up playing a similar role to the one he plays in Serenity: hunting down someone (though he’s less of an assassin in Salt). There are also enough unknowns and twists & turns in the plot to prevent it from becoming predictable, stagnant and boring.

Having also made Patriot Games and In Clear and Present Danger, I guess director Phillip
Noyce has a good idea of how to make an action film (I’m not familiar with most of his other work), and the fact that Jolie does most of her own stunts adds more realism to the film, and keeps it fresh.

Overall: a good action romp of a film, with an interesting and intriguing plot that separates it from other espionage/CIA type films. The characters themselves are engaging enough so that we care what is happening to them, and they are played by actors who seems to throw themselves into the roles, making it all the more credible.