Promising Young Woman made waves upon its release in 2020, and sparked multiple think pieces and conversation. Writer-director Emerald Fennell’s sophomore feature, Saltburn, aims to do the same with its acerbic style and bombast. The film is a gothic thriller that dissects class, privilege, obsession, lust, and the levels of cruelty birthed from various power dynamics. The film has similarities to The Talented Mr. Ripley, though it’s not as expertly crafted. Saltburn has enough to keep our eyes glued to the screen, curious to see how everything unfolds, but it isn’t necessarily as insightful as it thinks it is. Anchored by a strong, eerie performance by Barry Keoghan, Saltburn is wickedly twisted, alluring, and darkly satirical, though it’s lacking some bite.
Oliver Quick (Keoghan) is a scholarship student at Oxford. He doesn’t really have any friends, at least not ones he truly cares about, when a flat bike tire incident sees him befriending Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), a rich kid who takes Oliver under his wing. After Oliver’s father dies and the semester ends, Felix invites him to Saltburn, Felix’s family estate, for the summer. Oliver joins Felix’s family — parents (Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant), sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), and cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) — for a summer that will change everyone’s lives forever.
Saltburn pushes the idea that Oliver is also driven by lust, but this is where the film falters. As the film nears its final third, Oliver’s infatuation with Felix is derailed by dalliances with Farleigh and Venetia. It shadows Oliver’s relationship with Felix for a while, leaving it a bit underdeveloped and preventing the ending from fully sticking the landing. Perhaps it’s because Fennell leaves the breadth of Oliver’s intentions a mystery until the final moments, which is meant to surprise (only if the clues she lays out early on aren’t given much attention), but it doesn’t entirely work. To be sure, Saltburn is the kind of film that would benefit from a second, and even third, viewing, but the story’s buildup required additional tension for the point to be fully appreciated.
And yet, Saltburn is the kind of film that will keep you watching regardless of the creepy, weird, and intense moments that crop up — and there are many of these. Fennell is especially committed to the gothic style, and there’s something audacious about setting the story at a sprawling estate that exhibits distance, wealth, and detachment away from probing eyes. Characters like Pamela (Carrie Mulligan), Elsbeth’s troubled friend, and Oliver want to be in the circle, to taste the sense of importance, power, status, and money the Catton family wields simultaneously as a weapon and with performed care and sympathy. The film conveys all this with a fierce fanaticism, even if it doesn’t have anything particularly deep to say about the very themes it presents.
Coming off of watching his take on Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Jacob Elordi’s performance in Saltburn seems to complement the former. He portrays Felix with an initial sense of sincerity and kindness that belies his wealth, but Elordi begins to shed certain assumptions we have about Felix as the film goes on. It’s a subtle shift, but Elordi plays with the complexities of his character very well, especially as he relates to Oliver and Farleigh. Rosamund Pike is equally great as Elsbeth; she’s haughty and sharp-tongued, taking in people while bad-mouthing them in the same breath.
But of course, it’s Barry Keoghan who steals the show as Oliver. Keoghan’s physicality allows him to be a chameleon. His Oliver comes off one way before sliding towards other characteristics, and his body language — along with his distant, calculating eyes that can also be quite earnest and sweet when needed — effuses an awkward charm that can be disconcerting at any given point. Keoghan’s performance creates a clever illusion we’re happy to go along with until the very end, so addicting is his take on Oliver amidst Linus Sandgren’s dim, eerie lighting and wide shots of Saltburn’s grounds, which keeps us at arm’s length from the characters while wanting more.
That’s Saltburn in a nutshell. It brings us into the story, but also keeps us firmly out. It has a lot to say, but doesn’t quite get to do beyond the surface. Fennell’s writing and directing choices are stylish if somewhat tame. But the film, imperfect as it is, is also beguiling. Even if it begins to drag a bit towards the end, Saltburn keeps us riveted to the screen as we wait for what comes next. To that end, the film and its character dynamics are intoxicating and wildly enjoyable, almost uncomfortably so due to the nature of their entanglements. If it had been less concerned with its twists, Saltburn could have been immaculate.
Saltburn screened at the 2023 Middleburg Film Festival, and will be in theaters nationwide on November 22. The film is 127 minutes long and rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout, some disturbing violent content, and drug use.
