Salt

2010, Rated PG-13, 100 minutes, Directed by Phillip Noyce, Written by Kurt Wimmer, Produced by, Lorenzo di Bonaventura & Sunil Perkash, Cinematography by Robert Elswit, Original Music by James Howard

With: Angelina  Jolie (Evelyn Salt), Liev Schreiber (Ted Winter), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Peabody), Daniel Olbrychski (Orlov)

It is only fitting that just weeks after 11 Russian sleeper spies were captured and exchanged, that a movie would come out that delves deep into the idea of Russian sleeper spies. You can’t pay for that kind of marketing. Fortunately for the movie, Evelyn Salt, instead of being a housewife in the suburbs, is a highly trained CIA agent, which makes the movie much more interesting. Unfortunately the well done action sequences do not make up for the uneven and jumpy plot line, and poor character development.

Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA operative who seems to have the run of the CIA along with her partner Ted Winter (Lieve Schreiber). On her first wedding anniversary she is called in to interrogate a walk in Russian defector. This defector tells her that there is a Russian sleeper spy that is about to assassinate the Russian president and that spy is Evelyn Salt. A confused Salt quickly flees the premises through some nice spy handiwork and the chase ensues. It goes deeper than that as the movie tries to keep you in the guessing game of whodunit as you try to examine the various characters and their motivations. While slightly conventional as far as spy movies go, it was fun to watch the movie twist and turn (even if I did guess the ending).

The real problem with the movie is that while the overall story line is fun, it moves too quickly by jumping from scene to scene with very little development on the way. Sure it is a summer blockbuster so you expect more action than in depth plot development, but those interlude scenes were too quick and undeveloped, often because the CIA would bang down the door in the middle of a memory and bring the movie right back into the action scene. I would have loved to had more of a chance to understand the characters and to see them with the opportunity to really act as opposed to just dodge bullets and fight the bad guys, and the good guys (I must acknowledge her that I do appreciate good stunt work and this movie did an excellent job). I feel like I knew more about Jason Bourne who did not even know who he was that I did about Evelyn Salt and those around her. Director Phillip Noyce actually explicitly addresses the pacing of the film in an interview: “I think the audience attention spans have changed. The rhythm at which information is processed has sped up...The audience is so fast...They are way ahead of you unless you can join in their dance and create a dance they want to follow.” He seems to have sped the tempo of that dance up just a little too much. I would have appreciated a few more spins of plot and character development in this particular cinematic dance.

Jolie working with director Phillip Noyce

The acting itself speaks to the rhythm of this dance in that it was, for the most part dry and fast. I was only really able to connect with Jolie’s character and that was mainly because she was on screen almost the entire movie. She had the greatest amount of time to dive into her character and she did alright but at the same time she seemed to lack the depth that I have come to assume a Russian sleeper spy would have. The film also rested on the relationship between Salt and her boss/partner Ted Winter (Liev Schrieber) which did not come off very well in the film. According to Noyce, Schrieber’s character was supposed to bring “a lot more emotionally and almost express an unrequited passion for his protege.” What we ended up with onscreen was a always scowling every serious character who deadpanned every line he had, even the “emotional” ones. The only other real main character was the counterintelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and his role seemed merely to be the surprised and screaming one during the action sequences. A poor attempt at human connection during the action scenes. 

Speaking of action scenes, those are what the movie did best. They were very well done in that they were slow enough to know what was going on amidst all the explosions, but also fast paced enough to grip the audiences attention. Jolie was in her element as she pulled her signature Salt move of jumping onto a wall and then pouncing onto her opponent fists or legs first. It turns out a lot of the action sequences were filmed for real instead of on green screen, and Jolie pushed herself hard in this film. And fortunately for this movie there were plenty of great and varying action sequences to satiate the summer blockbuster moviegoes thirst. 

Salt  was a much better film with a female lead than the originally intended Tom Cruise. It turned an overdone plot scheme into a more interesting one with a female heroine. It was enjoyable to watch, but lacked many crucial elements that would have made it an outstanding movie. There was a good amount of intrigue but very little development aside from that. I put Salt squarely in the ranks of entertaining summer blockbusters that you see and enjoy but then quickly move on.

B-

Quotes from “Q&A: Salt director Phillip Noyce: the diretor on remaking a role for Angelina Jolie,” by Gregg Kilday, Hollywood Reporter, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iabea5ee8f01f624ade596daea81c5111.

Content Advisory

intense fight scenes and car chases and moderate language

Food for thought/discussion

1. The Russian sleeper spy program focused on orphans. Why did this fact make a more successful program?

2. Is Evelyn Salt on a vengeance quest, or just following orders?

3. Is the film a critique on American or even Russian intelligence? Is it making a statement or just entertainment?