Beginning in December 2005 with my history of apes in film essay “Gorilla of Your Dreams” (the substantially update and revised version appears in The Apes of Wrath), I regularly contributed to Moving Pictures Magazine. First in the print incarnation and then for primarily the website. I contributed reviews and essays for the last three years of the publications existence. Following the June 2011 demise of both the print and website editions, all of the digital work for MPM disappeared into the ether. In the coming months (years?), I plan on reposting many of my reviews and articles.
In memory of summers past, here’s my July 23, 2010 review of the Angelina Jolie action-thriller Salt.
Salt
Review by Rick Klaw
(July 2010)
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Written by Kurt Wimmer
Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor
The fear of the Soviet Union spawned a cottage industry during the Red Scare 1950s that only ended with the 1991 collapse of the USSR. James Bond, The Hunt for Red October, and Red Dawn all entered the pop culture zeitgeist during that period. A small even-more paranoid subset emerged during this time: the Soviet mole, a Russian agent so deeply embedded within American society/culture to not even know that they themselves are the enemy until an event awakens them. Director Phillip Noyce (Catch A Fire) and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen) revisit this Cold War concept in the largely forgettable Salt.
CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) lives an idyllic life with her husband Mike Krause (August Diehl). The pair fell in love years before when in an attempt to gain access into North Korea, Salt established a relationship with Krause, an acclaimed German arachnologist whose unique skills grant him access across international borders. Captured as a spy, Salt languished in a North Korean prison until, under Krause’s persistent pressure, the US government arranged her release.
Currently residing in Washington DC, the highly respected officer’s world crumbles when an FSB officer asks to defect. An expert in Russian intelligence, Salt interrogates the defector. He tells her a tale of Soviet-era moles littered throughout the United States and how their hidden agenda will come to pass following the assignation of the Russian president in a few days when he attends the funeral of the US vice-president in New York City. The Russian also reveals that Salt will be the assassin. Fearful for her now-missing husband’s life, Salt runs before her employers can detain her for questioning. Her boss and friend Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) reluctantly joins counter intelligence agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on the hunt for the now-rogue Salt.
Rather than following the groundwork established by the superior “mole” films The Manchurian Candidate and No Way Out, Noyce cobbles together set pieces to create a thriller with no tension and for the most part unremarkable action. The quick-moving tale needed more time devoted to character development, especially given the quality of actors involved, none of whom is given much to do.
With no emotional investment anchoring the story, the ludicrous plot veers into the stupid, relying on one inane and improbable concept after another. The implied incompetence of the US Secret Service, an unlikely confrontation in the White House, an endless freeway scene, and the predictable, 1950s-style comic book ending further erode the movie’s credibility as it slides beyond any consensus reality.
Obviously an attempt to spawn a Bourne or James Bond type franchise, the film relies on the tropes of both series, lifting at least two memorable scenes directly from the Bond mythos. Salt offers none of the strengths of what it hopes to emulates and falters as even an interesting summer action movie.