Title: Salt
Rating: PG-13
Release date: July 23, 2010
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes (100 minutes)
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Written by: Kurt Wimmer, Brian Helgeland
Starring: Angelina Jolie (as Evelyn Salt), Liev Schreiber (as Ted Winter), Chiwetel Ejiofor (as Peabody)
Genre: action, thriller
Check out the Wikipedia article for a plot summary.
Check out the IMDB page for more information.
So what did I think?
The best way for me to sum up my feelings about Salt is "surprised." Sure, the plot is ludicrous and somewhat predictable (most action flicks are), but it’s still pretty good. I remember seeing all the posters for this movie with the tagline "Who is Salt?" and thinking "I don’t know! No one will &#$%ing tell me!" Now I know. One thing I can’t say was great for this movie was the advertising campaign. The "mystery" didn’t make me interested; it just made me irritated because I honestly had no idea what the movie was supposed to be about until I saw it.
Very rarely does the actual action part of an action movie catch my attention. The realism (and I use the term loosely, ‘cause, hey, Soviet sleeper agents) of the action scenes totally made the movie for me. It is almost completely believable that a woman of Angelina Jolie’s size, weight, and athleticism could pull off the moves shown in the movie. Jump off a bridge and land onto a moving truck? Sure – just replace "jump" with "kinda fall" and "land" with "smack into it and roll a few feet nearly falling off." It sure as heck doesn’t look easy. It mostly just looks painful.
Not only that, she gets beat up. Too often I watch fight scenes and roll my eyes when the hero walks away from a punch to the face without so much as a black eye. Women especially seem immune to anything resembling lasting damage. Not Salt. The very first thing you see is Angelina getting tortured (I am never going to North Korea), and boy, does she look like crap afterwards (I hate swollen eyes – so gross). The movie also acknowledges women are smaller and lighter than most men, which means she engages in very little hand-to-hand combat. The only times she does is when she’s cornered or has the drop on someone; most of the time she gets her rear in gear and gets out of there. When she does have one real fistfight she gets her butt kicked, because Liev Schreiber is twice her size.
Speaking of fighting, I noticed how her fighting style changes once she dyes her hair. When we still believe she’s a CIA agent, she doesn’t engage her pursuers and improvises a lot more (the fire extinguisher flame-launcher thingy is just cool). When she joins the Russians, she’s more confrontational and comes across as a bit more hardcore. Personally, I prefer when she’s blond, because of the vulnerable air it gives her, making things seem more urgent and dangerous. I also just didn’t like how she looks with black hair.
Biggest complaint is probably the ending. Why’d she have to jump from the helicopter? The president saw Schreiber shred the secret service guys and it’s not that much of a leap to realize Angelina is probably the reason he’s not dead. So what the heck?
Some moments
Like I said, I love the fire-extinguisher flame-launcher thing from the beginning of the movie. Angelina’s entire escape from the CIA building and the chase after is fast-paced and intense. Everything doesn’t go perfectly for Angelina, making it believable. Her "I’m such a wife" moment once she gets back to her apartment is great too: dropping off the pet dog at the kid neighbor’s for babysitting is such typical wife/mom behavior. She even remembers to leave money so the girl can buy food.
I really almost started laughing out loud when the Russian spy-guy gave his whole spiel on the Russian sleeper agents trained since childhood to take down America... it’s just so darn silly. I could not take that seriously. I mean, come on. "Day X?" Seriously?
One thing in particular that made me raise an eyebrow is her leapfrog jump-thing down the elevator shaft near the end of the movie. It’s one of the few action hero stunts that I wasn’t entirely convinced by.
Called it!
I knew she hadn’t really turned bad when she didn’t kill a single agent when breaking into the tunnels under the church. I have to admit, I couldn’t figure out the Russian president’s “death” though. I totally forgot about the spider venom.
I figured out Shrieber is a Russian a few minutes after the White House stuff began. I couldn’t figure out why he’s there, so I figure "Oh hey. Spy. Gotcha."
Shipping notes
So, did anyone else start shipping Angelina and Schreiber’s characters like five minutes into the movie? I was attached to them more as a couple than Angelina and her husband, since he only really appears in flashbacks. I was kinda disappointed when Schreiber turned out to be a Russian – I liked the idea of him being hurt and disappointed in her but still loving her despite it all... Okay, so you don’t think "sensitive" when you look at Schreiber, but what can I say? I’m a romantic.
And the verdict is...
I give Salt on my more than likely inconsistent grade-scale:
B-
I wouldn’t see it again in theaters alone.
I wouldn’t see it again in theaters with someone else.
I would see it in dollar theaters.
I wouldn’t buy it on DVD.
I would rent it.
It’s a very standard spy-action movie with an absurd premise, but I was very impressed with the "realistic" action and liked Angelina and Schreiber’s characters enough to want to ship them. It drags a bit at moments, but still entertaining.
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