Film Review: Salt

Salt. 100 minutes. Rated M. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer.

No amount of flashy but unexceptional production values can disguise the inordinate amount of silliness going on in this unrelievedly calculated, one-note political/spy thriller from Australia’s Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Dead Calm).

Kurt Wimmer’s (Law Abiding Citizen) inert screenplay seems trapped in the dim, distant past with its terribly dated ‘Russian Spy Cold War Nuclear Political Assassination’ mash-up of convoluted plot-lines – and while there’s one genuine moment of intrigue early on, everything that follows is so obviously sign-posted and strangely predictable that there is hardly a thrill to be had. Great contemporary examples of this genre (Enemy of the State, The Informant, The Recruit) have plots that can turn on the head of a pin. Regrettably, this one doesn’t and ultimately you leave the cinema with the distinct impression that here is a film that believes it is cleverer than it actually is.

CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is on her way home from the office to celebrate her anniversary with her husband Mike (August Diehl) when her departure is interrupted by the arrival of a ‘walk-in’ – a Russian defector Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) who has some important information he wants to share. Salt agrees to a brief interview with Orlov, who promptly declares that Salt is a Russian Spy who is going to assassinate the Russian President when he visits America for the funeral of the Vice-President. Salt must quickly discover how to prove to her CIA colleagues that this is not the case.

Ms Jolie is on auto-pilot throughout and is never as good as she was in Wanted, Mr and Mrs Smith or even her first venture into this action-packed genre – Lara Croft and the Tomb Raiders. Ms Jolie is a much better actress than this (The Changeling is just one example of her outstanding range) and Liev Schreiber’s performance as her partner/defender/foe ‘Ted Winter’ is deadly dull – appearing by the end to be only marginally more interested by the whole thing than we are. Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012) as CIA Mastermind ‘Peadbody’ tries hard to generate some interest in the proceedings, but only Mr Olbrychski and Mr Diehl manage to bring any kind of class to what turns out to be a very long, bloody, noisy, panicked, violent and instantly forgettable 100 minutes.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group and appeared in the printed edition of the Geraldton Guardian.