Review

Review Date: 25-July-10
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Salt (2010)

In our so-hip modern world there is good square and there is bad square. Good square might apply to the shy kid in your class who always has his nose in a book and is never seen at parties but will make a solid, secretly passionate husband someday. Bad square might apply to the know-it-all in your class who irons the crease in his pants and seems destined to become either a hellfire preacher or the next Hitler. I happen to be a fan of good square, which is why I enjoyed the first act of the movie Salt. Blending action with a nicely corny feel, the movie introduces a CIA agent named Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) who is planning to leave hard-core fieldwork behind for the stability of a desk job. Her motivation is her good-square spouse, a scientist who geeks out on spiders (August Diehl). His romantic side is established in flashbacks of their unusual courtship, and their bliss is conveyed in a domestic scene where he jokes about her cooking while their pooch watches from the sidelines. Hurrying out of the office on their wedding anniversary, Salt is delayed by the arrival of a foreigner who claims to have important intelligence. While her boss (Liev Schreiber) and other cloak-and-dagger types look on, the man announces that Evelyn Salt is a double-agent who will attempt to assassinate the Russian president at a state funeral the following day. One of the witnesses (Chiwetel Ejiofor) hails from a different branch of the bureau and, not knowing Salt or her record, suspects that the accusation might be true. Because of this and fear for her husband's safety, she lams it from the office like a fugitive and thus becomes one. A chase ensues in which Salt displays skill and luck, appearing to be impervious to breakage, bullets, and gravity like all matinee heroes with the truth on their side.

Having established Salt's hopes for the future and predicament of the moment, the movie suddenly grows dark and muddled. It starts to give off a bad-square odor. The advertising posed the question "Who is Salt?" so her actions now belie everything we thought we knew about her. It seems unlikely that the star of the picture is going to turn out evil, so this comes across as a mechanism for keeping the audience in its seats rather than a mystery. She does go after the Russian president and then proceeds to infiltrate the White House. With the violence increasing along with the number of unpleasant images (like a battered, bandaged child in thrall to a monster), it no longer feels quaint that the bad guys are Russians stuck on the Cold War and nuclear armageddon or that the main villain was instantly identifiable to anyone who has watched more than four movies in his or her lifetime. With Salt having morphed into a killing machine, the impression is of stale ideas used to generate a self-important grimness. What a tease when the movie initially promised an old-fashioned get-chased-and-reclaim-your-life thriller! A further disappointment is how little time is given Ejiofor, one of few actors who can match Jolie's powerful presence on screen. By the end of Salt I felt let down and vaguely disgusted, as if that know-it-all with the creased pants had tried to grope me behind the gym.

Copyright © 2010 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.