Salt

Salt quenched my thirst for a strong relevant female lead in movies today. But it just doesn't cut it through and through.

CIA Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent who will kill the Russian president during the late American vice-president's funeral. She denies the accusation but escapes anyway, sending questions all over.

I have never sacredly watched The Bourne Trilogy in full (and I read somewhere that it's what they aspire the film to be, except of course, having a female lead) so I don't know if they had the same flow but some aspects of Jason Bourne are present. But I can say it had a pinch of the story of The Manchurian Candidate. Overall, the action is great, especially having used almost old-school filming techniques all the way. But the story, although plausible, is a little bland. It was so-so, unconvincing, and very lacking in motive. It could have been implied throughout the movie, but just ever so thinly. Me wanting definitive answers? Not satisfied.

So much has been said in the press about Salt being originally written with a male lead. May I just say again that Jolie is the one woman today who can headline an action flick like any other person with a set of balls out there. She's tough doing almost all of her stunts but still has the emotion for her character, not totally breaking down but always picking herself up and moving forward. Any girl who still hates her for stealing Brad Pitt from Jennifer Aniston way back should wake up now. Really. Her authentic portrayal of strength and sexuality are the reasons men dig her on and off screen (and maybe minus the half a dozen tots in tow sometimes)!


Salt gets a six out of ten, for twists and turns here and there, a strong female lead, but a BLAH (in big bold letters) in the end.


P.S. Special thanks to Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor for being such great support leads. Your days as Sabertooth and the guy who got married in Love Actually are such nice flashbacks to how veteran team players you both are.


*photo from allmoviephoto.com