SALT

“SALT” (Angelina Jolie & Liev Schrieber)

Saw this on Labor Day after viewing “The American” & there’s no question that 'Salt' is the better film. Why? Because, if anything, there’s too much going on in ‘Salt’ whereas nothing happens in ‘The American’.
I liked Salt because the plot was intriguing; the action scenes, though far-fetched as most action scenes are, still held my interest & that’s not easy to do. But what separated Salt from the usual spy flick is despite the confusion & the twists & turns in the plot, if you paid close attention to the little details, you could figure it out. So I appreciated that my diligence in noticing those details paid off & that there was only one twist that I didn’t see coming – when it came, I was a little disappointed in the overkill of Russian spies, but what the heck, it was an enjoyable ride watching this unique yarn spin itself out.
From the trailer you know that a former member of the Soviet Union (Daniel Olbrychski as Vassily Olov) surrenders to the Americans and while being interrogated by agent Evelyn Salt he tells her that she is going to assassinate the Russian president because she is a Russian spy.
Salt’s major concern from the moment this revelation comes to past is toward her German husband who rescued her years earlier from a Korean prison when she was caught spying & subsequently tortured.
C.I.A. agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) goes a little overboard in trying to keep Salt contained & then recaptured when she escapes - as Evelyn leaps from vehicle to vehicle on a busy freeway, Peabody shoots at her, obviously not caring if a stray bullet hits an innocent driver whose auto could then spin out of control killing several more – or my favorite is when he shoots at her whilst she balances atop a tanker truck. My wife’s explanation for this was “He probably figured the tanker was empty.”
Just before leaping onto the freeway, Evelyn proclaims, “I’m being set up! I’m innocent!” Yet, she still makes her way to where the Russian president will be attending the funeral of the American Vice President.
Like everyone else, I was thinking she was going there to try & prevent the assassination but that doesn’t seem to be her purpose as she devises a way to be alone with the Russian leader & doesn’t try to hide what her intent is.
I don’t want to give too much away, like I said there are twists aplenty – although I knew why Salt was doing what she was doing by paying attention – Just keep asking yourself, “Why is she doing that?” & you’ll figure it out as well. And I liked that – too many films throw twists in from out of nowhere just to make themselves look clever. I think it makes them look stupid – If you don’t give us any clues, how can we figure it out, dumb-ass?
There was one major continuity problem – Evelyn escapes her apartment via the fire escape with her dog in a backpack – one second the dog is seen & the next second the backpack is zipped up with no dog in sight.
Liev Schreiber plays Evelyn’s supervisor, Ted Winter, who keeps telling the C.I.A. she’s innocent until she proves him wrong – then he wants to track her down & kill her more than Agent Peabody does.
The final scene was totally unnecessary as the U.S. President (played by a white guy for some reason – I guess they wanted us to think that it was Cheney who died) could have explained who did what. But I guess they felt they needed one more outlandish stunt to go out on. Still, I was very entertained by this film, even though the idea of rekindling the Cold War with the meek & mild Russians is more than a little idiotic, but the premise, the idea that is presented isn’t far-fetched, especially if you’re one of those conspiracy theorists – you’ll actually believe something like this is GOING to happen. & soon!