Salt
Melbourne Central Hoyts, 24/08/2010
Status: Behind by 5 (and a half) films
Have I ever told you how much I enjoy a good espionage-action movie? Yes, I thought I had. I like one that’s stylish (like Salt), clever (like Salt) and unconventional (like Salt, well, in theory any way).
PHILLIP NOYCE (Clear and Present Danger, Rabbit Proof Fence) directs with minimal Michael Bay-style whip-panning and frenetic cutting (although any at all is too much for me). The action has lots of tension and plenty of MacGyver-style inventiveness to get Salt out of some terribly tricky situations - of which there are perhaps a couple too many. The support cast (mostly LIEV SCHREIBER, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and CHIWETEL EJIOFOR, Serenity, American Gangster) are reliably solid.
Despite all the hoopla about Salt being so unconventional - ANGELINA JOLIE plays the best (and now rogue) agent in the CIA instead of Tom Cruise - it’s actually a very, very conventional thrill-a-minute action movie. A bit like Whip It!, the sport movie about roller derby chicks, or like Julia Gillard become PM, there's a lot of talk about how women in roles where we’re more familiar seeing men is so subversive, but quickly we realize that it makes very little actual difference - Whip It! was still a sports movie, Salt is still an action movie and Gillard is still a politician.
