Salt

Salt - Dir. Phillip Noyce (2010)


Not so long ago, rumors floated around that Hollywood execs were no longer interested in action films starring female protagonists. This was in response to the box office failures of films like Catwoman, Elektra, and Ultraviolet. I’d wager the suckiness of those pictures had more to do with the lousy scripts than the gender of their stars.

Salt looks to buck the trend casting Angelina Jolie as the title character. Ironically, the film was originally conceived with a male protagonist. Tom Cruise was initially attached before dropping out to star in the abysmal Knight and Day.

Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt. The name seems to have chosen so critics could come up with headlines like, “Jolie worth her salt” or “Needs more salt.” Anyways, the picture begins with Salt being tortured in North Korea after her cover is blown. She is eventually freed and exchanged for another agent partly due to efforts from future husband Mike Krause (August Diehl), an etymologist specializing in spiders.

2 years later, Salt and her handler, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), interrogate a Russian defector named Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Orlov claims to have trained sleeper agents from childhood to infiltrate the United States. Apparently, one agent has been activated and charged with assassinating the Russian President. That agent…Evelyn Salt. On the run, she looks to clear her name and find her missing husband. If she’s the Fugitive, then Chiwetel Ejiofor from Serenity is Tommy Lee Jones.

Salt plays like a fast and loose version of The Bourne Identity with the plot existing only to service a string of action sequences. Not surprising since the script was written by purveyor of schlock, Kurt Wimmer, who also wrote and directed Equilibrium and the aforementioned Ultraviolet. The plot is thin, predictable, and lacking any real suspense. Wimmer dusts off the Russians as the film’s primary villains. While it may seem outdated, recent headlines have shown that the Soviets have been using hot women to spy on America.

The largely implausible action sequences are well done with Jolie bouncing off bridges and the rooftops of semi-trucks. She jury rigs a bazooka out of a fire extinguisher and blocks a security camera with her panties. Salt marks the welcome return of Phillip Noyce to the genre, Noyce previously directed Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, the latter featured an excellent shootout, before moving onto politically charged dramas such as, The Quiet American and Catch a Fire.

Jolie is instantly credible as an action heroine. Salt is a better display of her talents than Tomb Raider or Wanted though it’s no less silly.

Rating: **

State of Play

State of Play - Dir. Kevin Macdonald (2009)

Just like Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, State of Play was based on a BBC mini-series. Having not seen the origin British production, I can’t speculate as to how the American remake matches up to it. I will say that State of Play is a perfectly acceptable thriller that tries to evoke the themes of 70’s classics such as All the President’s Men with a hint of The Parallax View.

State of Play begins with a young African-American male with a history of drug problems and felonies being murdered in an alley late at night. The police probably would have let this one fade away if not for a bicyclist witnessing the shooting and also being killed. Cal McCaffrey (Russell Crowe) is the veteran reporter assigned to the case by the Washington Globe and his tough-as-nails editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren). That very morning, Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), the beautiful aide to Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is killed in a supposed accident on a subway platform. Collins is a rising star in political circles as he heads an investigative committee looking into the inner workings of PointCorp, a private security firm and obvious stand-in for Blackwater. Young and handsome, he’s the type of TV-friendly politico that John F. Kennedy Jr. may have been if not for his premature death. Alas, Collins is more John Edwards than John John as it comes out he was having an affair with Baker. Robin Wright Penn plays Collins’ dutiful wife, Anne, who reluctantly chooses to stand by her man for the big press conferences.

McCaffrey was once Collins’ roommate in college and it’s hinted at that he also had an affair with Anne years ago. Lynne wants to use McCaffrey’s relationship with the tarnished congressman to assist in the story being written up by the Globe’s online blogger, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams). McCaffrey and Frye begin working together in an adversarial capacity. The elder journalist feels she is a glorified gossip monger and can’t stand that she has a high-tech laptop and doesn’t seem to own a pen. Eventually she takes on a mentor role and teaches her to get out from behind a desk and use old-fashioned legwork to get the scoop.

Though the film takes a uniquely American point-of-view to the proceedings, it is the Scottish Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) who helms the picture. Macdonald is backed up by a script written up by a team of crackerjack screenwriters all of whom are well-equipped to handle these ripped-from-the-headlines, twisty turny story. Among those who contributed to the script include Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom, Lions For Lambs), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Billy Ray (Breach, Shattered Glass), plus an uncredited rewrite from Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon). They manage to find some balance between the wealth of characters and subplots. There are a few bumps in the road that may take you by surprise and a few you can see coming. Perhaps, the weakest point in the film is the third act resolution which tries to fit in a few too many twists while wrapping all the dangling plotlines far too neatly.

The political scandals may make up the meat of the story, but the underlying themes of print versus online media are a far more fascinating aspect to State of Play. The clash between the old-school and the new-school. Further on point is the added effect of the economic slump to the financial viability of the newspaper. My local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, recently laid off just under 200 workers following similar layoffs last year. Filmmakers added an extra layer of resonance as we watch the latest headlines move through the massive printing press on its way to the public. If only there were a lame-legged newsie hawking copies on the local street corner, shouting ”Extry, extry.”

During early development, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton were attached to the roles of McCaffrey and Collins, respectively. We may not have gotten a Fight Club reunion, but Russell Crowe is more believable as the weary, slovenly McCaffrey than Pitt. It’s not a surprising role for Crowe following similar ones in American Gangster and Body of Lies. Affleck has the good looks for Collins, yet lacks the range of Norton to bring the character truly to life. Some of his line readings are flat. The best performances out of the A-list ensemble belong to supporting players Jason Bateman as a sleazy, drug-addled PR man and Jeff Daniels as an oily elder statesman.

State of Play isn’t the ingenious thriller the cast and crew had hoped it would be. It is, however, a popcorn film for those seeking something deeper than expensive CGI and loud explosions.

Rating: ***