Sorry Angie, the plot of your new film is like salt in the wound.

Salt
Rated (PG-13)
Is it worth $10? No
Hudak grades it a C

By Dan Hudak // Hudakonhollywood.com

“Salt” opens with Angelina Jolie in her underwear. Her character, Evelyn Salt, is getting tortured in a North Korean prison, and keeps repeating: “I am not a spy, I am not a spy,” which savvy moviegoers know means that she is definitely a spy.

This attention-grabbing sequence, which sets up elements of espionage, truth and Angelina’s underwear (which does come into play again later), is director Philip Noyce’s way of telling the audience to not believe what it immediately sees or hears. The problem is this lasts for the entire movie, as confusion, unclear motivations and intentional misdirection lead to an end result that is a muddled, preposterous mess.
Evelyn’s spy-status is confirmed when we see her working for the C.I.A. It’s quittin’ time at the office, but her boss, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), asks her to interrogate an old Russian defector (Daniel Olbrychski) who turned himself in. He says a Russian spy named Evelyn Salt(!) is going to kill the Russian president at the New York City funeral of the vice president.

Ted believes Evelyn when she proclaims her innocence, but counter-intelligence agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ojiofor) doesn’t, and she’s taken into custody. She then she easily escapes, with the help of her underwear. Now think about this: If she was innocent and had nothing to hide, 1. She wouldn’t escape, and 2. All she has to do is not kill the Russian president! That’s it, just don’t do that one small thing and you’re free and clear.

But no, screenwriter Kurt Wimmer has to take the story on a tilt-a-whirl before it gets dizzy and throws up an ending. The biggest flaw is that we never know whose side Evelyn is on, let alone why she’s doing what she’s doing. If the viewer has no one to root for, interest will lag, no matter how exhilarating the action.
Occasional flashbacks attempt to add context, but fail, in part because the movie needs clarity, not background info. The action is high-impact and sufficiently rendered, but nothing special. One sequence involves Evelyn jumping onto three separate trucks while moving at a high speed on the highway, then stealing some guy’s motorcycle and riding to safety. The energy is high throughout, and the musical score by James Newton Howard nicely accentuates the action.

Why actors with the talent of Jolie, Schreiber and Ojiofor would get involved in this nonsense is anyone’s guess. No doubt the paycheck was nice, but they know better than anyone that the story needs to be there or everything else is irrelevant.

Complicated? Sure! Pointless? You bet. “Salt” is here to satisfy the massively growing demand for Cold War-inspired action movies set in the present day. Wait, there is no demand for that? No wonder it’s such a disappointment.

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