(M) ***

Director: Phillip Noyce.

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski.

IT'S hard to imagine any female star other than Angelina Jolie pulling off the lead role in this enjoyable-enough thriller.

As she's shown with the Tomb Raider films, Wanted and Mr & Mrs Smith, Jolie has a commanding gun-toting presence no matter whether the film is good or not, and Salt allows her to run the gamut of head-kicking toughness and sympathy-eliciting softness (and thankfully it's not that bad of a film).

She plays loyal CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who is named as a deep-cover Russian double agent by a defecting Russki spy she interrogates in front of her superiors.

Before she can be seriously questioned, Salt does a runner to protect her husband - or is she actually a sleeper agent who's just been activated?

This question and the quick-yet-effective set-up gets the film bolting straight out of the gates and an hour or so whistles by rapidly before you even know it, making for an exhilarating ride.

Plus recent events in America involving secret Russian spies living and working among the populace doesn't make this such a far-fetched premise.

It's only when Salt finally draws breath at the start of the final act that the film slows down, but such is the prior breakneck pace that it feels like its grinding to a halt. It struggles to regain that momentum in a messy climax that doubles the double-crosses and almost entangles itself in its own twists, effectively backing itself into a corner.

Jolie's performance is solid and keeps you following Salt to the end, even when you can't work out whose side she's on. Whether she's building a makeshift cannon using a fire extinguisher or leaping across moving trucks, there's enough down-to-earth Jason Bourne-style spy action to keep this entertaining without being a real stand-out or completely fresh. In fact, the big joke doing the interweb rounds at the moment is that the film should be renamed Jason Bourne With A Vagina.

Good enough, but not the most memorable of spy films, Salt certainly ticks most of the boxes, thanks in no small part to a breakneck start and the pulling power of Jolie.