Salt

Who is Salt?

Oscar winning actress, Angelina Jolie, plays talented CIA agent Evelyn Salt in Phillip Noyce’s action packed thriller Salt. Highly respected amongst her peers, praised by her superior Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) and happily married, Evelyn is in her element. Until one day, a Russian spy infiltrates the CIA building and notifies them that one of their agents will assassinate the President of Russia on his forthcoming visit to the United States. He names the secret agent as: “Evelyn Salt”. Now on the run and simply referred to as ‘Salt’, the giant question mark over Salt’s true identity continually leaves the audience second guessing.

There is an overriding sense that Salt isn’t entirely original. Similar to the Bourne movies, the plot unravels in a similar fashion. An all-out aggressive assault to hunt Salt down is launched forcing Salt to adopt many guises to avoid capture and nothing is revealed until the very climactic ending. Nevertheless, the mystery surrounding Salt is essentially what keeps the audience gripped whereby clever interludes of ‘flashbacks’ of Salt’s past stimulate genuine interest and intrigue in both the character and the story that is being told.

Reflecting back on Jolie’s Oscar nominated performance in Changeling (2008) and then back on her active role in Salt certainly serves to show off her versatile acting skills. Her conscious choice to be involved in a diverse range of films makes her an actress that is assured to be interesting to watch. A clearly capable actress whom enjoys doing her own stunts, one particular fast-paced scene that is full of adrenaline is where Salt is chased on to a road bridge and with no other means of escape hurls herself off it ‘luckily’ landing on a moving lorry below. Such high powered scenes characterize this film as a whole and whilst the supporting cast are equally credible, Jolie undoubtedly makes the film what it is.

With all the positive elements that an action movie should embody, Salt is well worth a spot on the DVD shelf.

JC