The Citizen Review " A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." -Robert Warshow

"Salt"

by Jack Meriwether 7/23/10

With Salt, Phillip Noyce's more than just a little over the top jolt ride, we have even more proof that Angelina Jolie is everyone's favorite superwoman. If maybe you are that moviegoer who shies away from big blockbusters with titles like "Salt", who is also tired of nearly falling asleep to a dozen "art" films, Salt may be the perfect punch of flavor to wake you up a tad.

The film stars Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, an American CIA agent, married to a loving German scientist, with a mysterious past. She's accused of being a Russian spy, which she isn't, which she is, then isn't all over again. Let's not fret too much over the story of this movie because it's not really about that. Salt is a well-made film that knows it's place in it's genre and uses the idiosyncrasies of said genre to give you one heck of a motion picture. We find the silky-haired action dame falling onto speeding trucks, dashing bullets, altering her appearance not only by hair color but as well as gender, use liquor bottles as deadly weapons, and looking slick good doing so. I got a special feeling watching Jolie beat the bad guys and deliver clever lines, she had the air of a classy actress who knew what she was doing.

The film eventually takes Evelyn Salt to the secret corridor in the White House where the President goes to be safe from the bad guys, nice try Chief of State. She is bloodied, beaten-up, bruised and still willing to konk her way out of a moving helicopter into icy water. I won't tell you whether or not she was doing this to be a good guy or a bad guy. We'll let this film have some sort of mystery.

Yes of course there a major, stun-gunner plot twists and all-out action sequences, and it's these ridiculously realized elements along with the charisma of a truly good actress that make Salt a good film to see in theaters this summer.