Fridae

Salt is like a female James Bond. You’re meant to think of Pierce Brosnan in the pre-opening credits sequence from Die Another Day when Salt begins with Angelina Jolie receiving the North Korean special welcome for American spies. This, too, happens in Salt’s pre-opening credits sequence.

You’re also supposed to think of the Bourne flicks too during the course of this spy thriller, because Angelina Jolie’s character, Evelyn Salt, has an identity crisis of sorts. The CIA knows her as one of their top operatives, but when a Russian Cold War era spymaster casually walks into the office and insists Salt is a Russian double agent sent to assassinate a major world leader, she runs for her life – presumably because her paranoid colleagues would have to put her in Guantanamo while they redo their security checks on her.

Does Salt escape in order to prove her innocence, or because the Soviet spy is right? Does she race to Washington to foil the dastardly nefarious plan, or does she race to enact it? Does it matter that there are huge plot holes in this film? We know why we’re in the cinema, and the answer is to watch Angelina Jolie’s body contours and angular lines as she plays an armed woman running and jumping around.

I’m not saying we’re watching Tomb Raider: Double Spy, but Kurt Wimmer seems to have written an action video game packaged as a film. Angelina Jolie must solve several puzzle/platform obstacles in order to escape enemies, foil chases, and infiltrate bases. This involves a lot of jumping, which introduce us to video game physics where characters continuously employ the ability to make death-defying jumps without any risk of injury.

Luckily for us, Salt is directed by Phillip Noyce, a veteran of the spy action genre (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Saint). Action flows from set piece to set piece, glossing over inconvenient plot holes. The result is an action thriller that’s practically a guilty pleasure to watch. Will there be a sequel? We certainly hope so!