Film File - Salt

Here's to Angelina - superwoman. As the celebrity actress whose film career often plays second fiddle to the media's obsession with her private life as a serial Third World adopter, her new film should do much to shift the balance back into positive territory again. In this engaging action thriller, Brad Pitt's wife climbs up the sides of buildings, leaps onto a speeding truck, medicates her own bullet wounds and she even does a dazzling two-step dance in a lift shaft as the elevator hurtles downwards. On top of that, she shoots, zooms on a motorbike and delivers some nifty karate kicks. In short, stand aside Bourne & Bond - there's a new gal in town. As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honour and country. However, her loyalty is severely tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. But the harder Salt tries to prove her innocence, the deeper into the spymaster's web she falls. The origins of the film go back over five years when Jolie expressed an interest in doing an all-out action role. "I was in a Hollywood meeting when it came up in conversation that the studio was getting ready to make one of the new James Bond films, and I playfully said, 'I want to be Bond!' And it all kind of rolled on from there." Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer had originally conceived the role of Salt to be played by a male actor, but, like all motion picture projects, the screenplay then went through several drafts, with the major change occurring when the filmmakers envisioned Jolie in the lead. Overnight, Edwin Salt became Evelyn Salt. After the major spy story of last month where a dozen Russian spies were discovered as deep-cover operatives in the USA, 'Salt' arrives in cinemas with more than a hint of realism to boost audience interest. In the film, Evelyn Salt must go on the run to prove her innocence when a defector alleges that she's a mole, triggering Day X - the day when Russian sleeper spies awaken and begin their war against the United States. Day X is still a controversial topic inside the CIA, with some agency veterans believing it's absolute nonsense and others considering it a very real possibility. Many intelligence agents contend that the former Soviet Union deployed covert agents masquerading as citizens in western countries in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a network of intelligence operatives who would live under assumed names for 15 to 20 years, or longer. When activated, these sleeper spies would then orchestrate a chain of sabotage and terrorist attacks within the United States, the beginning of a large-scale war with Russia. With a number of action roles to her credit including 'Tomb Raider' and 'Wanted', Jolie begins the film as a CIA agent in search of a cosy desk job and a suburban life with her academic husband. Then, in walks the defector who accuses Salt of being a Russian deep cover operative and the action starts and really never stops until the final reel. Salt has to take to the run, somewhat like Tom Cruise in the first 'Mission Impossible', chased by the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service and even the KGB - all of whom want to get up close and deadly with her. Director Phillip Noyce handles the action with great skill, honed over the years through movies like 'Patriot Games' and 'Clear And Present Danger'. While ramping up the pace from one action set piece to another, he does slow it down just enough so we know where the plot is going. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Liev Schreiber offer support as two very different government agents, Winter and Peabody, both of whom are lured into the cat-and-mouse puzzle of who Salt really is. This is a solid action movie anchored ably by Jolie. She handles all the stunts thrown at her, and really does make her mark as a potential female hero we might see more of. Bring it on.