SALT is Angelina Jolie

By Moira Sullivan

Angelina Jolie is Evelyn SALT - a CIA agent with a Russian past. The opening minutes pull us into a scene with a Russian defector who Salt speaks to in an interrogation room. Suddenly a plan to kill the Russian president is on board and Salt is implicated by the defector as a double agent just before he leaves the building. Here’s where the action begins. None other than a James Bond spider woman, Angelina Jolie jumps out of buildings, on to moving trucks, strong arms agents like they were silly putty and wrenches a motorcycle from a driver when the freeway jams. Unlike James Bond, Jolie has a husband and his safety is her MO. Here’s why James Bond never marries, pretty much through all of the film, her husband is her main concern, and why she needs to stay on the run. But at least she gets to be spider woman. Her husband is a German anachronologist that somehow sprung her from North Korea military for being a spy and afterwards she continues her domesticated life until fate has its way. After her escape from the CIA Building San Francisco native Liev Schreiber as Ted Winter
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peabody seem to always be cutting her slack, and are never quite convinced that she is a double agent.  Director Philip Noyce succeeds in providing the backdrop to this action thriller and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer has written some believable dialogue. Watching Jolie escape the bad guys which are both American and Russian is an exhilarating roller coaster ride, and her bag of tricks includes knowing something about spiders, being a master of disguise, and being able to get herself out of the most amazing situations with the acumen of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.  Alas we are back again to the days where the Russians and Americans are trigger happy and the Presidents are ready to push the panic button and launch nuclear weapons. All the usual cold war suspects are on hand, including a league of young children raised by Russian agents and stationed in America to seek retaliation. Is SALT one of them?  Nothing is predictable in this film, which is bound to have sequels, and that is great for Jolie.  

Some questions come to mind -- why are the parameters pushed back to the post second world war political climate. And what is it with this German anachronologist? Will we get to know more about how are spiders will be used in warfare? Phillip Noyce after all did to a series of films on where Harrison Ford played US Naval Academy and PhD Jack Ryan until he was too old, followed by Ben Affleck. Well Angelina Jolie who has partnered with Noyce for The Bone Collector has more than a few years left to play a swashbuckling pulverizing secret agent.

For Movie Magazine this is Moira Sullivan

© 2010 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 07/28/10
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