Angelina Jolie has taken on the world refugee crisis and six children, not to mention Jennifer Aniston’s ex, so what’s daunting about reinventing the world of hard-hitting, intense action spies? I’d say it’s a man’s world, but that’s not even true. It’s Angie’s world. We’re just living in it.
In Salt, released today, she plays a CIA agent who is suddenly accused of being a long-term sleeper Russian agent. We’ve all heard the stories of Russian sleeper agents, throwbacks to the Cold War, who were discovered borrowing library books and doing internet searches here in America. We sent them packing, followed by a gale of laughter. They may have stolen Martha Stewart’s lemon chicken recipe, but little else. It does, however, raise questions. Such as…how did Columbia come up with such a perfect marketing campaign for their movie?
Salt is nothing like that. Despite being 96 pounds, 98 with her wig, she got moves. She’s infiltrated to the highest levels of the CIA and done time for espionage in a North Korean prison. When a crazy-talking Russian defector names her as a Russian agent planted in childhood, she goes on the run. She manages to stay one step ahead of the CIA, Secret Service, Washington DC police, Russian spies, and every other law enforcement agency in the world. There’s a dastardly plot to kill the Russian president. Salt is either going to stop it or make sure it happens.
There are things I liked about the film very much. Jolie doesn’t play Salt sexy. She doesn’t wear spandex or seduce a rival or strap a glock to her inner thigh. She is sexy, being Angelina Jolie and all (except when they turn her into a man. She’s a very ugly man.), but she doesn’t play sexy. Instead, she hits that intense, murderous, righteous rage that drives men like Jason Bourne or women like Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise.
It’s more of a quietly feminist movie. Probably one of the most ridiculous things that drive women (or at least me) crazy in action flicks is the propensity of the gals to run, fight, scale walls, shoot bazookas, and ride rampaging buffalo in four inch heels. I’ve tried these things in heels. (Well, not the buffalo part.) It’s not so glamorous in real life. Upon realizing she must run for her life, Salt’s first move is to kick off and abandon her pumps, running, fighting, and scaling walls barefoot until she can acquire some sensible boots. Bravo.
She also uses feminine knowledge to solve problems. Her panties block the feed from a security camera while she fashions a grenade launcher out of household items. The panties are black and lacy – she is a woman after all – but they serve their purpose. My favorite, however, was when she breaks into the dispenser in a ladies’ bathroom and uses the maxi pads to bandage a gunshot wound. Makes perfect sense. I bet Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, or James Bond never thought of that.
Now if we could just get her to beef up a little, she’d be perfect. Jolie seems to carry most of her weight in her lips. The rest of her is simply skeletal. As hard as she clearly works at stunts and acting, and as talented as she is, her thin frame is a distraction in the film. You need a little meat on your bones to keep up the pace of running like an Olympian, jumping from moving truck to moving truck, kicking men’s teeth out, breaking through concrete walls, and scaling elevator shafts. It’s hard to watch her taking hard hits. Perhaps watching any woman get beaten up by men is primordially difficult, but she looks so fragile, it feels even more wrong.
The film, fast paced as it is, has a few false notes. Salt sometimes walks away too easily from the mayhem she causes. Turning her into a man, well, that’s just silly. Why waste the Jolie?
Some viewers (I was not in this category), felt Salt’s motivation was too in question and had difficulty seeing her as anything other than an anti-hero. Not me. I guess I’m just a cockeyed optimist.
My friend Sue and I agreed. The film is fun ride, a few hours of intense mayhem, double crosses, and pouty lips. Columbia is hoping to spin this character into multiple films. It’s not a home run, but should be enough to warrant a sequel.
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