Angelina gets to play bond in this entertaining spy thriller.
The producers of Salt must be thanking their lucky stars. If it wasn’t for the bizarre story coming out of the States a few months ago about a US-Russian spy swap the plot of this one would seem far-fetched and dated to say the least. Originally titled Edwin A. Salt with Tom Cruise in the lead it was renamed when Cruise felt it too similar to his previous role in Mission Impossible. Cue Angelina coming onboard and a female Bond franchise is born.
Angelina plays Evelyn Salt, a beautiful CIA agent whose life starts to unravel during a routine interview with a Russian defector named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Dismissed as a loony, he speaks of an upcoming ‘Day X’ that has been in the works for 30years, its culmination the assassination of the Russian President by the spy, Evelyn Salt. Funny that, as Angelina says, “I’m Evelyn Salt.” Given that Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor, American Gangster, 2012), a counter-intelligence agent was in the room at the same time, she has good reason to run rather than be arrested for espionage.
From here on out the movie becomes one giant action sequence after another as Salt does everything she can to avoid getting caught and seemingly fulfil Orlov’s plans. Whether Salt is actually a Russian agent or not creates an interesting moral conundrum, as it’s hard not to root for her – jumping onto moving trucks, making homemade bombs, taking out US agents with aplomb. That’s until you realise you’re cheering for someone with the sole-purpose of destroying the United States.
I mentioned the Bond inspiration, and the plot certainly seems like something out of the earlier flicks. However Salt is more a female version of Jason Bourne. There isn’t time for exotic locations (maybe that will come in a sequel) and she certainly has no time for flirting. No – just endless ass-whipping. Clinical, calculated ass-whipping. Evelyn Salt is not someone you want to back into a corner. Even more impressive is the fact that Angelina did a lot of Salt’s stunts herself. Filming even had to be stopped at one point to rush her to hospital when a stunt when wrong.
I’ve avoided going into too much detail about the plot because once you start typing it out it quickly becomes laughable. Presidential assassinations, nuclear annihilation, double agents – this stuff doesn’t happen anymore… surely? I wasn’t concerned about the questionable story going in though – I just wanted a decent genre effort and that’s exactly what I got. In-fact it’s one of the best action-thrillers I’ve seen since The Bourne Ultimatum. Director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence) shows great versatility with this effort and Angelina puts in one of her best performances to date. It’s already made over $200million worldwide so don’t be surprised if Evelyn Salt is back on-screen in the not to distant future. I know I’ll be lining up again.
****
Andrew Cozens