‘Salt’ Review: The Evolution of Girl Power
By Anthony D’Alessandro
The 1970s Virginia Slims cigarette promos boasted the slogan “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” toward their femme demo and the same prideful adage can be applied to the female action hero who has broken ceilings at the cinema over the last 40 years.
In the wake of the body count left behind by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone in the ’80s and ‘90s, it’s often asked Who is the action hero of now?
As a fresh crop of actors make their mark in the genre, they become too pretentious about fully wearing the crown for fear of being pigeon-holed: Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel prefer to dabble in bullets.
If you’re holding out for a hero, “Salt” reminds us that our cinematic knight in shining armor wears a dress and her name is Angelina Jolie. Jolie doesn’t duck her head when labeled as an action lead: She knows that there are enough Oscar-worthy offers out there for her, even if she gets a little grease on her hands.
Sure, we’ve already seen Jolie’s finesse with fisticuffs in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” but “Salt” showcases the actress’ physical prowess at its zenith with arm-breaking acrobatics and the overall philosophy that it’s better to send in a woman to do a man’s job — a shout out to Tom Cruise who was originally intended for the title role.
In the Phillip Noyce-directed film, Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who comes to the realization that she’s a sleeper Russian spy after her childhood Soviet intelligence-mentor Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) outs her before her U.S. associates. Salt’s ultimate mission is to assassinate the Russian president at a New York City funeral for the U.S. vice president. From this point on, “Salt” turns into a lean and mean chase as the title character defies any punishments that her Yankee counterparts, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) and Peabody (an intense Chiwetel Ejiofor) wish to rain on her.
Noyce is no stranger to spy actioners having hit his stride with the Tom Clancy adaptations “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” What makes “Salt” more enjoyable is that it doesn’t get bogged down in the politico-spy speak of those films, rather it takes the square root of them, distilling down to a heart-thumping orchestration of stunts, eloquently backed by James Newtown Howard’s string and drum score.
At the front of Salt’s mind is the fate of her German-born husband Mike Krause (“Inglourious Basterds” August Diehl), who she married against Orlov’s instructions. Mike loves Salt so much, he championed her release from a North Korean jail. Salt flees to New York City where she begins to lay out her weapons and bombs to take the Russian president out. Orlov’s motive is to make it appear as though the blood is upon the hands of a U.S. spy. When accomplished, the assassination will quickly reopen Cold War wounds and hasten a nuclear war between the two superpowers.
It’s no wonder that the name Salt is a play on the 1970 U.S.-Russian peace treaty acronym (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks); Jolie’s spy is truly a symbol of armament control. Salt’s offing of her motherland’s leader buys credit with Orlov who, as expected, has Michael tied up. What follows in the remaining two-thirds of the film is a series of clipped, sharp twists that set Salt apart from her spy movie brethren Jason Bourne, James Bond and “Mission: Impossible’s” Ethan Hunt.
Salt’s charm is that she’s an estrogen-fueled protag; an ever-changing chameleon, quite evident from the get-go when she dyes her blond hair to black –- the disguise ironically doubling her as Mel Gibson’s Russian ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva (and wouldn’t Jolie kick ass in that role?).
It’s hard to imagine Cruise playing Salt. For one, Jolie’s Lee Strasberg skill set enables her to melt into a Russian accent on par with the high-tea tone she donned in “Tomb Raider” – and frankly, foreign tongues aren’t Cruise’s forte. Cruise’s version of “Salt” would be water-downed next to his high-wire antics in “Mission: Impossible” and airplane roles in “Knight and Day.”
Jolie owns “Salt”: It’s more provocative to watch her, tight-lipped, make a bazooka out of office equipment, scale an apartment building like Spider-Man and choke a guy while hanging off a balcony – physical hijinks rivaling those in “Casino Royale.” All this without ever flashing a bra strap.
What’s clear is that Jolie has fully evolved the female action archetype to crowd-pleasing heights. Already there are rumors that “Salt” could best the $62.8 million opening weekend of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Inception” – and wouldn’t that be a slap in the face?
Long gone are the days when female gun-toters were relegated to TV (‘70s “Police Woman”) and downtown cinemas (i.e. Pam Grier’s oeuvre). Not to mention, action parts nowadays won’t kill an actress’ career (Kathleen Turner’s demise was spurred by 1991’s “V.I. Warshawski”).
Some critics are lambasting “Salt” as completely mindless and illogical in its plotting. It would be foolish to think of “Salt” as being anything more than the savory popcorn summer actioner that is. After all, what is the cinematic intelligencia expecting to see? A shoot ‘em up version of “Mighty Heart” with Jolie’s Mariane Pearl enacting revenge for the husband she lost?
Think of the promotional catchphrases for that project.
A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation in association with Relativity Media. Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Sunil Perkash. Executive producers, Ric Kidney, Mark Vahradian, Ryan Kavanaugh. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Screenplay, Kurt Wimmer. Camera, Robert Elswit; editors, Stuard Baird, John Gilroy; music, James Newton Howard; production designer, Scott Chambliss; art director, Teresa Carriker-Thayer; set decorator, Leslie E. Rollins; costume designer, Sarah Edwards; casting, Avy Kaufman.
CAST: Evelyn Salt – Angelina Jolie, Ted Winter – Liev Schreiber, Peabody – Chiwetel Ejiofor, Orlov – Daniel Olbrychski, Secretary of Defense – Andre Braugher
Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, July 21, 2010. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 100 MIN.
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What I DON’Y UNDERSTAND IS WHY ALWAYS RUSSIA???!!!!!Are you scared or what?I’m from Russia and this was really offensive and I’m disappointed!!Why don’t you pick Spain,Italy or I don’t know…(in good part)I love the actors in this movie, but Russian people look so bad!!!!We don’t care two hoots about America!It seems that you think a lot about yourself!!!