A new movie entitled Salt might fancifully be described as something like “Terminator Meets Wonder Woman.” Here’s the gist of it: Evelyn Salt is a thirty-something CIA operative involved in covert activities. She’s happily married to an arachnologist (important in the plot, believe me) and is torn between the horrific demands of her job and her love for her husband. On the eve of their anniversary, Evelyn is planning a romantic celebration. Just as she is about to leave the “office,” however, she’s called in to interrogate a Russian defector who tells a strange tale. It seems that back in the Cold War days various USSR bigwigs hatched a plot to transform Russian children into spies who would be sent to the US, raised as Americans, and pressed to infiltrate the country at every level. Now that these child spies are grown up, the plan is about to come to fruition: one of them will assassinate the Russian president, who is in the United States to attend the funeral of his close friend, the American vice-president. The chilling thing we learn is that Evelyn herself, whom we have come to like and empathize with, will be the assassin.
Sound bizarre? It is. Salt has definite similarities to previous thrillers The Manchurian Candidate and The Boys from Brazil. In those films, however, the potential assassins did not know their destiny, having been programmed to act only at prescribed moments. As hard as it is to accept, we soon realize that Evelyn does know her destiny, and the picture’s admirable tension lies in the interaction between Evelyn’s “programming” and her underlying character. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt and Liev Schreiber as her CIA protector. Interestingly, Schreiber played the assassin in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Salt is one of those movies to which you have to pay very close attention if you’re to clearly understand the storyline. Evelyn, as we might predict, soon has to elude her CIA colleagues in a series of actions which make the film hurtle along at breakneck speed. It never slows down long enough to allow very many of its potential flaws to be revealed.
Negatives:
Language: The Lord’s name is misused several times. There are several occurrences of the s-word.
Violence: There’s a lot of it. Don’t take your kids if you go.
Plot overload: The story is convoluted, to say the least. Since many of Salt’s Chuck-Norris-like exploits strain the bounds of credulity, some might consider the picture a fantasy. The viewing experience resembles nothing so much as a high-powered amusement park ride.
Positives:
Acting: Jolie, Schreiber, and the other actors are skilled and believable in their roles.
Pace: Salt is exciting, holding your attention throughout. It never drags. It’s a spy movie like they used to make them. If anything, it’s almost too exciting.
Theme: Salt is substantial; underneath it’s about something significant, namely the power of love.
Bottom line: Despite its problems, I found the movie to be compelling and worth my time and money. While not a Christian movie in any tangible sense, Salt has potential spiritual applications. For one, why is main character named “Salt”? For another, dispensationalists might see a reflection of Biblical Gog and Magog in the Russian / American opposition. My wife didn’t care for the picture, and we agreed that Salt might appeal more to men. All I know is that I felt surprisingly satisfied at the end. You might as well if you can get past the language and plot problems.
Film Rating: PG-13.
My rating: 3 1/4 stars.
Warning: Not for children or young teenagers.
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