Salt

Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is rescued from a North Korean Prison Camp thanks to the efforts of Mike Krause (August Diehl) an Archnologist who is completely smitten by her. He is unaware that she works for the CIA. A few years later, they are married, happily at that, and celebrating their anniversary. Evelyn is leaving for home with her close colleague, Ted Winter (Liev Schrieber) when they get info about a Russian defector Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Much against their wishes, Evelyn and Ted go ahead with their interrogation under the watchful eyes of Agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejifor) who is the CIA equivalent of Internal Affairs.


Orlov seems to have a past till 1993 but before that is a blank. He claims that there is a plot to assassinate the Russian Premiere @ the funeral of the US Vice President the next day. He also gives details of a specific Russian Programme called KA12, till now considered to be a myth, wherein Russian kids have been prepared on a really long term mission to hit specific targets on a specific Day X. The agent, he claims, is known as Evelyn Salt.

Needless to say, all hell breaks lose since Evelyn herself if interrogating Orlov. Knowing the way this would pan out, her immediate concern moves to Mike who is by then unreachable. She uses all her field experience to escape from the CIA HQ and gets home to pick up suitable back up ammo and then immediately takes off to NY where the funeral of the VP is to be held.

A few sets of amazing chases later, she finds herself in NY @ the funeral with the CIA hot in pursuit but unable to locate her and actually kills the Russian Premiere. A completely twist in the tale for the entire audience which by now thinks that she is actually trying to clear her name of all charges.

Salt is an extremely fast paced movie which in the words of a very close friend resembles a Bourne movie especially at the end. However, if he would have been aware of the background of Philip Noyce, the director, he would have claimed Tom Clancy instead of Robert Ludlum. Philip Noyce has directed both the Tom Clancy movies made to date i.e. Clear and Present Danger as well as Patriot Games. However, the last notable movie was over 10 years back in Bone Collector in 1999. To round off the espionage special he also made a very slick spy thriller starring Val Kilmer called The Saint.

The 10 year hiatus seems to have done Noyce a lot of good since he has come up with another very slickly made movie in Salt. Truly edge of your seat gripping spy thriller all the way till 5 minutes from the end where like a Dan Brown novel it kind of just fizzles out. Coming from the background of movies that he is famous for, one would have expected much better.

Jolie continues to prove that she is by far the best female star one can get for any action flick. Story goes that she refused to be a Bond girl coz she felt that she could be Bond herself. I would be inclined to concur with that observation. If Bond would be a woman, she would have to be played by none other than Angelina.

The rest of the cast seem to be pedestrian in comparison with the exception of Live Schrieber who I believe is waiting for a movie where he would be cast as the clear lead. Loads of potential there. His screen presence is quite charismatic. Chiwetel Ejiofor is an extremely talented actor but often relegated to secondary roles without much importance. Somehow he does not seem to have it in him to be a leading man anyways.

All in all, Salt is a fantastic roller coaster ride for the most part. I would have loved to give this a 7 on 10. But the ending pretty much seals my rating @ 6 on 10.