“Salt” is in free fall
Spy film awash in feminine inconsistencies and its facilities scriptwriting, “Salt” is another soulless blockbuster that values action over the scenario. Even Angelina Jolie seems to find the time long, which is all!
The CIA officer Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) and her mentor Winter (Liev Schreiber) are about to finish their workday. An informant arrived in their office to tell them that the Russian president is about to be murdered … by Salt! It does not take more to arouse curiosity and suspicion of the officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Unable to voice his innocence to his colleagues and superiors, to take the woman arrives heels, determined to remove any light on this story … or kill his target!
The director Phillip Noyce likes complex political narratives. When not lost in unnecessary poor substitute (“Sliver”, “The Bone Collector”), is what he filmed, with good results (“Patriot Game”, “Clear and Present Danger”) or disappointing (“The Saint”). Like his last film (“Catch a Fire”) was a failure at the box office and has spent the last decade in projects for television.
It therefore provides his usual expertise, which means a staged warning yet routine, with no real downtime. The two screenwriters have concocted up a far-fetched premise that borrows much from “James Bond” to “Mission : Impossible”, multiplying the returns over time that are supposed to give depth to the heroine in two dimensions. An effort which would prove worthwhile if the treatment did not exceed the understanding. After a promising introduction to enormously eyeing the excellent “The Fugitive”, the stresses relax completely to the point of no return. The turnaround situations are screaming with laughter, while improbable and predictability – to completely destroy all the hopes that a pilot ultimately recovers the aircraft before its collision planned and predicted. Thus, after an unlikely race against time worthy of the worst books of Tom Clancy, the conclusion leaves open a series. Maybe by then, the U.S. Secret Service can find better men to ensure their safety as being held in check by a frail person alone is far from good news.
For many, the interest of Jason Bourne with luscious lips is the choice of main character : it is a woman and not a man. Angelina Jolie is probably more attractive than Matt Damon, but it is certainly not a better actress. It becomes so when the head correctly (as in Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart” or Clint Eastwood in “Changeling”), which is not the case here, like a mere imitator of Tomb Raider, acting without passion or emotions. Facing her is always welcome Liev Schreiber will not go down to posterity with such a role, Chiwetel Ejiofor and tense which is struggling to convince when it is in a purely commercial cinema.
Dotted with several spectacular action scenes that end up quickly by all look the same, “Salt” looks like fireworks exploding in the face instead of respecting its original instructions (because the trailer was right not bad). Maybe that artisans should return to some things more seriously, starting with the Australian film which is much more talented (“The Quiet American” “Rabbit-Proof Fence”) in the drama.
