Salt Did Not Spice Up My Life. [Spoilers]

The premise of Salt was right up my alley. Action movies are my Achilles heel, especially ones that involve spies and covert operations. The trailer showed all of this and more, and I had been looking forward to seeing the movie for weeks now.

Evelyn Salt is a highly respected CIA officer. She has served her country with honor, especially during a two-year stint as a prisoner in North Korea. When a defector from Russia shows up to the CIA, Salt and her boss, Ted Winter, think it’s just a hoax. Once Salt starts questioning him, this defector reveals that she is an undercover Russian spy. “Day X,” a secret Russian operation in effect since the Cold War, is a plan to destroy the United States. Orlov claims that Salt is a sleeper agent, who will kill the Russian President as he attends the funeral of the US Vice-President.

Fearing for her husband’s safety, Salt goes on the run when she cannot reach him. At first, it seems that she has escaped to prove her innocence. Her exciting and dangerous escape from the CIA shows what a brilliant agent she is. Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg. Is Salt innocent? Who is she working for? Will she betray her country? The movie leaves you second-guessing her intentions until the very end. One of my biggest grips about action flicks is when time is taken to explain what’s going on. “Salt” expects that we can figure it out for ourselves. No time is wasted on short scenes recapping the motivation of its characters. Fast paced, smart, and enough action to keep me interested; I almost didn’t notice how improbable the film was.

Although there are some exciting twists and turns, this topic is nothing new. The action scenes, while sometimes unbelievable, are very well done. Angelina Jolie’s performance is what saves this average film.  She maims, shoots, and kills effortlessly, without sarcastic retorts or explanations. I’m all for puns while beating someone up (I love you, Spidey), but I really enjoyed the silent violence.  I’m a big fan of Jolie in action films (Lara Croft, anyone?) and she almost never disappoints.

SPOILER ALERT

I HATED the ending. I was really enjoying the film, even with its lack of character development and general implausibility. Salt killed all of the bad guys, saved the President, and put a big crimp in “Day X.” The CIA has no idea how many Russian moles are in the government, and could not even begin to start weeding them out. Obviously, this has now become Salt’s job.

This was one of the worst cases of ‘let’s leave room for any number of sequels’ that I have ever seen. Salt explains her case to the CIA agent who was hunting her, and they silently agree on her new mission. Find and kill the Russian sleeper agents. He unlocks her cuffs, and Salt escapes from the CIA helicopter, falling into the icy water below. The film ends with Salt running through a forest, heading towards her next kill. Fade to black. The ending is clunky and awkward, and it left me annoyed. With a cleaner ending, Salt would have been a much better film.

Side note: Jolie did most of her own stunts in the film, including hanging off of a 12-story building, and jumping onto a speeding car. Awesome.