Who or what is “Salt”?

Written By: mike on September 4, 2010 No Comment

Who or what the @#!$* is “Salt”? Should we care?
Another in the endless stream of one word titled Hollywood blockbusters, think “Avatar”, “Takers”, “Machete”, “ Inception”, “ Piranha”, blah, blah, & blah, Salt is the latest action-packed thriller release from Columbia pictures. Angelina Jolie, doing her best Julia Roberts impression, stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent forced to high-tail it out of town after being accused by a defector of being a Russian spy. And not just any spy, mind you, but one with intentions of killing the President of Russia while he’s in town for the funeral of the recently deceased U.S. Vice President. Are you listening Joe Biden? Some reviewers have described Evelyn Salt as Jason Bourne with a vagina. If so I’m hoping they opted for a steadier camera. It does appear to be Jolie at her badass best so if you like that sort of thing you just may be in luck.
Live Schreiber (that’s “lee-ev” as opposed to just plain “leave”) co-stars as Ted Winter, Evelyn Salt’s boss at The Agency. Recently seen as Victor Creed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Schreiber is a veteran of countless Indy films. He consistently delivered solid performances prior to having developed into some sort of box-office draw. He’s like the male counterpart to Parker Posey who went from starring in just about all the independent films produced in the 90’s to playing Kitty Kowaliski in “Superman Returns”. If you’re smart you can even catch them together in the hilarious 1996 comedy “the Daytrippers” as well as “Scream3” if you’re not. Schreiber also has the ridiculously good fortune of being in a child producing relationship with actress Naomi Watts.
Salt is written by Kurt Wimmer who wrote the screenplay for the 1999 remake of “the Thomas Crown Affair” and co-wrote 2003’s “the Recruit” another C.I.A. type action thriller that starred Al Pacino and Colin Farrell. Salt is directed by Phillip Noyce, an Australian whose previous work includes the powerful Aussie film “Rabbit Proof Fence” released in 2002.
One of my favorite bits of casting in this film is the character identified only as “U.S. President Lewis”. Is that supposed to be Lewis Black? Jerry Lewis? Huey Lewis? Anyway, President Lewis is portrayed by an actor with the unlikely name of “Hunt Block” who’s an even less likely Harvard grad. I’m also pretty damn sure he’s the only actor ever to be cast as a U.S. President whose resume includes appearances in “One Life to Live” “As the World Turns”, “All My Children” “Guiding Light” and of course, the very Presidential “Baywatch”. Good to see that Mr. Block has finally graduated to the big screen.
Salt is rated PG-13 so parents, despite the fact that you’ve been strongly cautioned, you’ve got pretty much nothing to say about whether your kids go to see this one or not.
In its release notes, U.S. Distributor “Sony Pictures Releasing” concludes “Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motive, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “”Who is Salt?”” Well that’s one question you’re just going to have to answer for yourself but if you’d care for my advice, wait for the DVD to come out. In the meantime put “Rabbit Proof Fence” at the top of your Netflix queue and “The Daytrippers” at number two.