Salt: (July 23rd, 2010): PG-13
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #2 with $36,011,243
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $103,438,273
Gross Revenue: $188,202,762
Budget: $110 million
Director: Phillip Noyce
Having Angelina Jolie as the female lead of a summer spy-thriller is practically a gift from the movie-marketing gods; her sex-appeal alone was sure to entice male viewers to head to the theater, but when word-of-mouth started portraying her as the female Jason Bourne (who had his own ridiculously successful franchise), resounding success was easily within reach. Buzz for the film was also increased by the main tagline: “Who is Salt?” Trailers showed audiences that Jolie’s character (Salt) was accused of being a Russian spy, and a certain amount of intrigue was generated when it was implied that Salt’s true loyalties may be unknown. I cannot help but find a little humor in the current environment into which Salt is being released; one of the top news stories of late June and early July involved the 10 Russian spies that were discovered living in suburban America, and now Columbia Pictures is releasing a film about Jolie being a Russian sleeper-agent. That could have either intrigued or offended potential audiences, but apparently this didn’t bother Jolie, seeing as how she invited convicted Russian spy Anna Chapman (the one with all the tabloid pictures) to Salt’s premiere. Needless to say, Salt’s run at the box-office was going to be interesting.
Here’s the basic plot: Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a well-respected CIA agent who is accused of being a highly-trained Russian spy. Salt’s accuser says that she will supposedly murder the Russian president while he attends the funeral of the recently deceased Vice President of the United States. Salt quickly escapes and evades her pursuers to try and clear her name, but it soon becomes apparent that Salt’s true loyalties are unclear, and that she is mixed up with a plot that is far more sinister than a political assassination. As disaster approaches, it is up to the audience to decide if Evelyn Salt is a hero or villain.
Though the plot seems like it has the potential to be a truly great spy-thriller, the reality is that many of core elements of the story are simply too ridiculous to pass as believable. Forgetting the fact that I called the film’s twist ending almost ten minutes in, I was more insulted by how shockingly incompetent Salt portrayed the CIA and the United States Secret Service. The actual Russian agents who were collecting information in suburban America a month ago, though disappointing, was believable; but in Salt, the amount of highly-trained KGB assassins that have supposedly infiltrated the government seems to suggest that the screening process to get a job at the CIA is easier to bypass than the background check at Wal-Mart. There is also a sequence where Salt is arrested, and though she is considered a highly-dangerous Russian agent, rather than being placed in maximum security, she is taken into custody by a small group of NYPD officers…no wonder she escapes ten seconds later. By far the most insulting part of the movie comes when Salt infiltrates the White House and makes it past security posing as a male NATO officer; that’s right, they tried to pass Angelina Jolie off as a man…at this point in the story Salt is at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List, and I’m supposed to believe that she could make it into the White House posing as a male? So not only does the CIA background check suck, but apparently the White House security and the Secret Service could care less who or what enters the White House during a time of heightened security. Sadly, these are only a few of the laughably unbelievable elements present in Salt.
I’ll admit that movie super-agents are supposed to execute some pretty impressive stuff, but even Jason Bourne and James Bond wouldn’t be stupid enough to try some of the stunts that Salt pulls off. At one point in the film, Salt jumps down an elevator shaft and hops from level to level without breaking a sweat…a physical feat that would make Spider-Man jealous. The stunts are a disappointing factor when you consider that some of them are very impressive and fully believable, while others have you rolling your eyes and wondering whether Salt somehow gained superpowers over the course of the film. As I said before, some have forgiven the absurd nature of the story and stunts present in Salt, but I cannot look past such negative elements when, by all accounts, Salt is meant to be received as a legitimate spy thriller.
The one saving grace of Salt is Angelina Jolie. I cannot decide whether Jolie actually had a strong acting performance, or if she was just entertaining and pleasing to watch on-screen. I’m not trying to be critical of Jolie’ acting, I consider her to be a very talented actress, I just do not think that she had much to work with in Salt. Her sex-appeal is clearly present within the film (though not on the level implied in the trailers), and her talent as an action star is obvious when you consider that she performed a majority of her own stunts. However, when Angelina Jolie as the lead is the strongest and solely positive aspect of a film, that’s a bit of warning sign; had any other actress been cast as the lead in Salt (Tom Cruise was actually the first choice for the role before it was rewritten to fit Jolie), the film would have been universally disappointing. Liev Schreiber does what he can playing Salt’s colleague, but I feel that his acting talent was severely underused (audiences last remember Schreiber from his role as Sabretooth in last summer’s X-men Origins: Wolverine). Despite the audience’s preferences for the actors on-screen, any positive aspects are buried by the gaping faults present within Salt.
I’ll admit that I was surprised at how well Salt performed against Inception its opening weekend, debuting at #2 with a solid $36 million. I was also shocked to learn that not only was 53% of the weekend audience female, but also that 59% of the audience was over 25 years old. I would have thought Salt’s main draw would have included the male demographic between 18 and 25, but I guess that shows that not everything about a weekend box-office can be fully predicted. With a budget of $110 million and mediocre reviews, Salt might have a bit of a fight to regain its production budget, but given that it doesn’t open in the international market until August 20th, I think the future added revenue means that it will be able to survive. Angelina Jolie fans have a pretty strong reason to see Salt, but the plot and action sequences are far too ridiculous to garner a high review from this movie fan. I think most of my readers will be more than happy to wait for Salt to show up on Netflix or Redbox.
Overall Recommendation: Low
