MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME

                                                           
Sunday, August 8, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW 
Salt
Is It Anna Chapman?  Is It Valerie Plame?  No, It's Evelyn Salt!  (Well, Maybe.)


On a mission to somewhere: Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt in "Salt", directed by Phillip Noyce, now playing across the U.S. and Canada.
Sony Pictures

by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW
Sunday, August 8, 2010

Propulsive, dynamic and fierce, "Salt" is a savory surprise during this lethargic big-budget cinema summer.  Long-awaited and once the province of Tom Cruise (who was in the running to star as Edwin A. Salt), the film's reworking as a vehicle for a woman pays great dividends, as Angelina Jolie demonstrates.  The film opened on July 23 across North America.

Phillip Noyce's hard-edged action-thriller is less a spy film than a test of endurance on a mystery-filled obstacle course.  The film's rhythm is haphazard, ruthless and razor sharp.  Ms. Jolie is Evelyn Salt, CIA agent -- proficient, professional, precise.  Early on Salt is seen, post-battery and bruising, in captivity somewhere in North Korea, looking not unlike Christina Ricci in "Black Snake Moan".

"I am not a Russian spy," Salt wearily declares.

A captured Russian spy is interrogated by the CIA.  He betrays Salt's declaration. 

All eyes are on Evelyn.  Ms. Jolie's character goes into "Fugitive" overdrive across Washington D.C., looking to clear her name in a murder or two and take care of some unfinished business.

"Salt" plays to Ms. Jolie's strongest onscreen qualities: a feral, knowing intelligence, smarts, beauty, agility and unmistakable allure.  The film is a good match for the Oscar winner, who has dabbled and dazzled in the action genre several times ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", "Wanted").  Some of the sequences Ms. Jolie is immersed in are "Matrix" fantastical, but despite their occasional incoherence, she makes them work very effectively.  Ms. Jolie lets the film's fast-paced situations come to her, never actively seeking to get ahead of or force-feed them with grandiose, showy dialogue or behaviors that cue an audience as to what will happen next.

Most importantly, Ms. Jolie's total credibility as Evelyn Salt emerges as she displays the bravery and tenacity of a woman wronged.  Or is she wronged?  Often we are unsure if she really knows about the truth of her circumstances, and there purposely (and thankfully) isn't much meat on a back story to inform us.  Periodic flashbacks of Evelyn Salt's "life" are displayed as memories.  She's struggling to remember who she is.  Does she have a clue?  Is she taking all of us on a ride called "mind f--k"?

Mr. Noyce (who directed Ms. Jolie in "The Bone Collector") has often depicted passionate everymen and underdogs in his films ("Rabbit Proof Fence", "Catch A Fire", "Patriot Games", "Dead Calm"), but in "Salt" characters are hardly righteous or without taint.  The director also invites us to think as an audience and not just ogle a sexy, embattled, complex heroine.  Mr. Noyce throws pertinent pieces of information at us in an economical fashion, and exactly at the proper point it needs to be divulged.  The disclosures are suspenseful in their own small way.

Tightly wound, with the energy and fury of a runaway train, "Salt" rarely slows down as its protagonist uses the full arsenal of skills embodying her trade.  Evelyn Salt thinks fast, acts fast and rarely looks back.  After all, there's little time for reflection on this wild journey.  She's the rabbit and the fox.  The movie is sly bait for a wanting audience.

Great films like "Run Lola Run" and "No Way Out" (1987) make a mark on this one, yet "Salt" distinguishes itself as a lean, quick jolt of a ride that stays fresh and keeps on running, even when the clock hits zero.

An FYI to Anna Chapman and Valerie Plame: Standby.  A colleague and ally may or may not be heading your way.

With: Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, Andre Braugher, August Diehl, Hunt Block, Olek Krupa.

"Salt" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for intense sequences of violence and action.  The film's running time is one hour and 37 minutes. 

COPYRIGHT 2010.  POPCORNREEL.COM.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.                Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW


SUBSCRIBE TO THE POPCORN REEL MOVIE REVIEWS RSS FEED
"movie reviews" via popcornreel in Google Reader

MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME