Taken With the Grains of Salt

My favorite kind of movie is the kind that does not waste any space.  There are no filler or superfluous scenes.  Every scene, every detail, is used to the advancement of the characters and the story, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.  For this reason, Salt was highly enjoyable, though it is not better than Inception, despite what others may say.

When I sat down in the familiar burgundy fold-up movie theater chair, I had a single thought. For me, this movie had one thing going for it and one thing going against it before it even started.  On the one hand, I am a HUGE fan of Liev Schreiber; always have been.  On the other hand, I am not a fan of Angelina Jolie.  On occasion, I can put up with her (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), but generally, I'm not really taken with her or her acting skills.


That being said, I was both very pleased and pleasantly surprised.  










Schreiber did not disappoint.  He played the role I've known him to play so many times before, the smart-ass, dry guy who always knows what's going on and has a few secrets up his sleeve.  Yes, this is probably type-casting, but he does it so well and I just love it.  And he can play other characters, a la Kate and Leopold.  















Jolie, however, put on a fantastic performance.  I won't go into detail into all the roles she played, but she kept the audience guessing the entire movie.  The only thing that gave her away was a quick flicker in her eyes.  Each time that happened, it was only for a second, but it did alert the careful audience members that she may not be who she currently says she is.  The irritating part, however, is that she always manages to lose her clothing.  The opening scene, she is in nothing other than some white lingerie.  A few scenes later, Schreiber is forced to say "Get your *** - **** panties off the camera!"  Seriously... can we have one movie without her losing clothing?  Just one?








The action-y fight-scenes were pretty epic.  The elevator and the fire-extinguisher rocket were among my favorite moments.  I also liked the crazy chase scene with Jolie climbing across buildings, running through streets, and jumping from truck to truck.  I especially liked that you saw her breathing hard and start to limp a bit during her run.  Finally, someone gets it!  Action star or not, they cannot run forever and not be physically affected by it.  It's just not humanly possible.  I am aware, however, that we are talking about Hollywood and they don't necessarily care about what is and is not within human limitations.


I fear I cannot say much more without ruining the movie.  It is pretty amazing.  And you will have to think a bit, even if you are just going to the movie to enjoy it because it is human nature to try to piece puzzles together and figure out what is going on, and, whether you want to or not, you're going to try and figure out what's going on.  And, in the end, you still might be shocked. 


So be prepared.