Salt

Where did this film come from? Was Hollywood paying attention when they were making this, or did the filmmakers pull a fast one on them? Salt is full of surprises, and kept me guessing the entire time. It has the prerequisite action sequences and shoot-outs in which Angelina Jolie is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and shoot everyone in sight without getting shot herself (well, she gets nicked, but one bandage and five minutes later, it's forgotten), but this ridiculousness is at the service of a plot that doesn't slow down for a second, and kept jolting me and confusing me, and making me pay attention. Finally, I started smiling, realizing I was watching a film that went through the studio system, and managed to come out the other side with some guts left in it. A lot of guts.

There's really not a lot I can say about this film without giving away its secrets. I could go on about how skillfully the action sequences are executed, but action sequences, even well-executed ones, are becoming run of the mill, and are only exciting anymore if you care about the characters and the plot. In this case, I did, and the sequences were thrilling and suspenseful. The stunt work is clever, and uses a lot less CGI than the really fake running of the bulls sequence in Knight and Day. There are car wrecks where they had to have destroyed a few cameras. I'll have to say one thing for Hollywood - they better be pulling for Detroit - they certainly wreck enough of their cars.

Angelina Jolie is the only actress I can think of who could have played Salt. There is something creepy about her. There always has been. She was wild in her youth, and even if she is resolutely tame now, there's still something dangerous about her that translates effortlessly to the screen, and is in full effect here. You know you can't trust her. You know that from the opening scene where she's being tortured to within an inch of her life by North Koreans, and all the while you know what she is telling them are lies. But she doesn't crack. She sticks to her story.

The set-up has Jolie's character, Evelyn Salt, as a CIA operative working in Washington. Liev Schreiber is her partner. They specialize in interrogation. Jolie is married to a German who has secrets of his own, and was responsible for effecting Jolie's rescue from the North Koreans, which also resulted in her cover being blown. The plot kicks into high gear when an elderly Russian spy is brought in for interrogation, and claims that Evelyn Salt is a Russian spy. According to brain wave analysis, he is telling the truth, so Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofer, another CIA officer, detain her for further questioning. But she manages to escape, and a long chase sequence follows, with Schreiber half-helping her, and Ejiofer out for blood.

What we learn from the interrogation of the elderly Russian is that Salt will attempt to assassinate the Russian President when he arrives in New York the following morning to attend the funeral of the Vice President of the United States. So Schreiber and Ejiofer, along with hundreds of FBI and Secret Service, stake out the funeral, and there's pretty much nothing more I can say without giving anything away.

What I can say is that I found Salt to be a brave departure from past Fugitive rip-offs. It's actually more of a combination of The Fugitive and a Bourne film, where both the pursuer and the pursued have the same skills with fists and guns (not to mention driving skills, and an intolerance to pain). It's a bizarre movie by Hollywood standards, because I didn't know who I was rooting for, and after awhile, I began to realize that Salt isn't a very nice person. She is certainly not a "good guy." Isn't our protagonist supposed to be a "good guy?"

Strangely enough, I listened to the audience during several of the more brutal shoot-outs, and half of them were cheering, and the other half were mute. I was mute. I was excited by what was going on, as Jolie worked her way through countless people to reach her goal, but that doesn't mean I wanted her to make it. I think those in the audience who were cheering either weren't paying attention, or didn't understand what was going on. Some people just cheer when there's action, I guess. As if it were a natural response.

I understand I am being vague. You'll just have to see this movie. It is definitely not your ordinary everyday $100 million action movie. Salt is that rare thing - a Hollywood thriller that kept me guessing, kept me excited, boosted the energy level of the summer, and gave me more faith that the studios are still capable of making movies that don't seem paint-by-numbers.