Salt is fun, and you probably know as much about the plot – which I won’t spoil for you because I can’t (and I mean I literally can’t, for, though I think I have the lines of allegiance sussed out, I’m not about to bet my credibility on a half-baked plot synopsis) – from the ubiquitous trailer as you probably need to know. But in case you don’t watch TV (and good for you if you don’t) then Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA agent who is suspected of being a Russian spy. She runs to clear her name. I think.
But I kid Salt mostly ’cause I like it, more than I maybe should, because it’s the kind of movie I remember they used to make. You could get snarky and call it sub-Bourne, or drive a grand cru metaphor through its plot holes, but you gotta love a movie that so wholeheartedly embraces the inherent artifice of the medium. Nothing in Salt is the way it is on our planet.
It seems obligatory that I mention that the script – assuming this thing had a script and the fine actors involved (spoiler alert: Liev Schreiber is in it) weren’t simply making it up as they went along – was originally conceived with Tom Cruise in mind for the lead. That it was so easily transposed into the key of Jolie seems surprising to some, though to be honest there are probably only two people in the world who could have made anything this bizarre and this entertaining. Jolie is one of them. And she used to be married to the other one.