OVP: Salt (2010)

Film: Salt (2010)
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl
Director: Phillip Noyce
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Sound Mixing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Angelina Jolie is a star that Hollywood knew was special, but I don't think 100% knew what to do with when she arrived on their doorsteps a little over a decade ago.  Hauntingly beautiful, terrific voice, charisma coming out her eyes (and lips), she was clearly destined to be a movie star, but there wasn't really a genre that fit her.  Sure, she could do dramas, but, despite her six (I think it's still there-I haven't read In Touch magazine in a while) children, she doesn't read super maternal onscreen (when we get to the OVP for Changeling, hopefully soon, we'll discuss how that seemed like a bit of a miss).  Comedies aren't really her forte, and romantic comedies even less so (who is going to believe anyone would turn this woman down for five seconds, let alone a two-hour movie?).  No, after her Oscar-winning turn in Girl, Interrupted, it seemed she was best suited for action films.  Which is great (Sigourney Weaver broke a lot of ground there and created an iconic character), but it's sad that, as a whole, her action films lack any sort of filmic worth.

Yes, I will acknowledge the wild fun of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and no, I haven't seen Wanted (though we'll be discussing that one as well when we get to 2008 in the OVP, which is only 25 films away), but Lara Croft and its sequel, The Tourist, and now Salt all leave something greatly to be desired (spoilers to come, but if you didn't see them coming in the film, you really should watch more movies).

The film tells the tale of a woman, Evelyn Salt (a clunky moniker if I ever heard one) a CIA operative, who has fallen in love with a man (it's not really important what he does, as he's really just a plot device, but he seems to collect spiders for some reason), and is desperately trying to find him, as he has been taken by someone (we don't know who until later in the film) after she's accused of being a Russian spy.  This leads to an extensive, half-the-movie chase through the streets of Washington DC as Jolie assembles makeshift bombs and finds herself jumping from semi to semi while avoiding a barrage of bullets.

All action films are a bit ridiculous (people in real life cannot possibly live through most of these things), but this film enters a different kind of ridiculous considering the body count that it assembles.  There are always casualties along the way, but ever since Taken, which hit such an extreme with its body count (essentially killing multiple, oftentimes innocent people in search of one man's daughter, without ever commenting on the carnage that's on display), it's become harder for me to really envelope myself in the story without knowing that there is a greater good in-store.  Salt takes down multiple members of the CIA and FBI in her pursuit of her husband, and when she is shown as truly being a Russian plant, that makes sense (the hero is fighting for the other side-twist!), but when it's shown that she's a double-double agent (she's actually just trying to figure out the Russian plan), it seems a bit indulgent.  The only death that is shown to be fake is that of the Russian President-what about the nameless extras that had families and loved ones that are lost along the way?

But I digress, as moral issues are not what Phillip Noyce is going for here-he's going for loud, boom, crash, and then "twist" after "twist" after "twist" (for the record, if you didn't see the Leiv Schreiber double agent thing coming from the very moment the Russian guy came in and talked about training young assassins, congratulations on seeing your first film-the script kept constantly reminding us that there were other double agents out there side from Salt, and wasn't it obviously going to be the guy who gets second billing?).  Except that even the sounds and effects were a collective yawn-yes, it's impressive that they can make all of these car chases sound so "realistic," but this is a relatively generic action film (all action films do that work), and I suspect it received this Oscar nomination because Greg P. Russell is a god amongst Sound Mixers, even if he can never pull off the actual win.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?  Did you like Salt, or do you wish Jolie would be a bit choosier when picking her action films?  Do you think Greg P. Russell should have an Oscar, and for which of his sixteen nominations? And with just five films to go for the 2010 edition of the OVP, are you as excited as I am to start discussing the 83rd Academy Awards in-depth?