Salt
(M), 100 minutes
4/5
Much of the promotional material for the Phillip Noyce-directed action thriller Salt concerns the question "Who is Salt?"
The bad news is that by the end of this film's 100 minutes, most in the audience still won't completely know the answer to that question.
The good news is that
they will have sat through one of the most relentless action films of the year in which Angelina Jolie, as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, goes on the run after a rogue Russian agent walks into her office and accuses her of also being a sleeper agent for the Russians.
Unable to make contact with her husband, Salt flees, rousing suspicion among her CIA colleagues as to her true motives and whether she is who she says she is.
What follows is a rollercoaster cat-and-mouse chase with Salt using all her CIA operative training to evade capture.
As the plot unravels, more of Salt's motives become clear, and although the film's ending is a touch predictable it does not hugely affect the overall movie-going experience.
Jolie does a good job in the role of Salt, channelling the same action film attributes she used in 2005's Mr & Mrs Smith, and elevating her role above one of a female Jason Bourne on steroids.
Admittedly a few of the particularly over-the-top chase action scenes require viewers to suspend their sense of disbelief, Salt is such a satisfyingly fast-paced film that there simply isn't the time to get bogged down in such minutiae.
Liev Schreiber turns in a solid performance as Salt's fellow CIA agent Ted Winter, and little-known Chiwetel Ejiofor brings a satisfying intensity to his role as counter-intelligence agent Peabody, infatuated with tracking down Salt.
Strong performances and a fast-paced plot with just enough complexity and pyrotechnics all combine to make Salt a highly effective action film - it brings nothing new to the table, but what it does, it does very well.
