From the film’s shocking start to its “twist within a twist” conclusion, the movie’s pacing and ever-intensifying conclusion doesn’t let up until the viewer ends up feeling like a very wet and limp dishrag—no kidding.
Aside from keeping viewers continually in a state of escalating tension and agitation, “Salt” is also a great vehicle for lead star Angelina Jolie, in her second and much better stab at action
film stardom (“Lara Croft, Tomb Raider” was a relative walk in the park).
Some female stars admit to “penis envy” because male action heroes generally make more money by top-billing blockbusters that gross gazillions at the box office. Well, Jolie hasn’t stopped at “penile-ly” envying the guys, she’s up and starred in a really exciting spy thriller that is beating some macho starrers at the tills.
What makes “Salt” such a crowd-drawer and giant killer? It casts the lovely Ms Jolie as a top CIA agent whose great career is rudely interrupted by a Russian defector’s accusation that she’s a Soviet counter-counter-spy embedded in the United States decades ago, in preparation for the execution of a top-secret plan.The scheme is to cause political havoc by assassinating the Russian president while he’s on an official visit to the US.
Protesting that she’s been falsely accused, agent Evelyn Salt is forced to run for her life to prove that she’s innocent. But, is she? Subsequent events suggest that, in this movie, fact and fiction aren’t just strange bedfellows, they’re as incestuous as a pair of Siamese twins in heat!
At the end of agent Salt’s long flight both away and towards self-redemption, the film does finally reveal the truth. But, no sooner has the cat been let out of the bag than an even bigger and more vicious feline is released, to claw at our frazzled brains one more time, before the movie finally comes to its mind-boggling conclusion.
