Three years after being on the other side of the law as Huey Lucas, Ejiofor again gained attention for supporting another star in a big action role, this time that star being Angelina Jolie in Salt. Jolie, of course, is the center of attention here, as well as Liev Schreiber, and it’s interesting that Ejiofor is again the man chasing down our hero, though he’s not specifically a villain.
Like in Children of Men, he’s on the other side of the protagonist, and therefore us in the audience, but we understand his motivations and based on the information his character has, his actions seem rather justified. He’s even redeemed in the end this time, recognize Salt as the hero she is and keeping her free. I think this shows that among Ejiofor’s skills is the recognition of complex characters and a tendency to play them with shades of gray, refusing to reduce them to types and milking them for as much effect as he can in the screen time he’s given.
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