Salt. Sodium Chloride. A pinch more or less here and there and it can make or break anything between haute cuisine and physiological equilibrium. Even if writer Kurt Wimmer (The Thomas Crown Affair) finds the associations to close for comfort, his Salt nevertheless does the job of balancing Cold War geopolitics with the climactic possibility of a nuclear blunderbuss (Dr Stangelove, without being strange) with great stealth and panache. And no marks for guessing that the irrepressible Anjelina Jolie as Eveline Salt takes the first and the last hurrah in this author-backed role of a dedicated wife and a sleeper spy who may or may not have been a double agent. 

Jolie is so utterly good in this thoroughly generic but no less stunning espionage drama that you forget that this is a full-throttle summer blockbuster from a major Hollywood studio, with all the assorted paraphernalia of an action-packed thriller, in which she, the female lead, goes all alone. Jolie ties up for the second time with Noyce (after The Bone Collector) having replaced Tom Cruise in the lead (Yes, Edwin Salt became Eveline Salt) after Cruise backed out of the project two summers ago. Thank God for that! 

Salt begins in North Korea. CIA agent Salt, after her release from a North Korean prison on an exchange, is keen to rehabilitate herself as a loving wife of a German arachnologist (spider expert) in New York when her past catches up with her in the form of defector Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Orlov heads a rogue Russian faction of ex-KGB operatives who are keen to carry on Cold War- type missions to infiltrate the US government for causing maximum harm. They are ruthless, clever and full of a dedicated militia. With them, we get to know about an audacious programme somewhere in Siberia where young kids are trained to become superspies under the strictest conditions and under the watchful eyes of a vague ideology, till they are furtively placed inside the core of US and allied governments. 

Eveline Salt is set up by Orlov in front of her own colleagues while announcing the impending attack on the Russian President on American soil, a plan that soon reveals itself to be true. Thus begins the obligatory chase, often filmed to the highest standards, that sees Salt through the most difficult of tasks to prove her innocence. But the more she moves closer to her mission the more is she embroiled in its improbable traps while it is revealed, amongst the whirlwind of breakneck speed and hobnob action, that she is not just another spy and no sky is safe for her. While the real plan involving secret agents and operatives (Ejiofor, Schreiber), two major Presidents and ostensibly the future of the world is revealed, it is not known till the end who the real Salt is but it’s clear that she, if anyone, who can save her name as well as the planet. 

There are enough action, thrill and cleverness in the script for everyone, even for seasoned spy-movie junkies. But above all there is Jolie, clearly enjoying the more demanding roles she gets with age, who keeps one riveted and enthralled. She is full of minerals! And no, it’s not just her world-famous pout that we are talking about!

Review of Salt | Rating: Very Good

Director: Phillip Noyce. Cast: Anjelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski