Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Rated R, 127 min.
Director: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe, Alison Oliver, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and Carey Mulligan
The elevator pitch to SALTBURN had to go something like this. What if we took Patricia Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, gave it a contemporary spin (circa 2006) and turned a Downton Abbey-esque estate topsy-turvy.
The mention of Highsmith’s novel seems like a spoiler, but many other critics have latched on to drawing comparisons between Tom Ripley and Emerald Fennell’s creation, Oliver “Ollie” Quick (played to the hilt by Barry Keoghan). Our first impression of Oliver is that he’s a loner attending Oxford on scholarship, but it looks like he was supposed to take the train to Hogwarts instead. But before all is said and done, Oliver will have ditched the coat and hush-puppies altogether – and everything else – having transformed into a man who is totally at ease with his surroundings.
SALTBURN is a beguiling tale of friendship and seduction. The first impression of Oliver is actually the second time we see him. The first is just before. Nonchalant and smoking a cigarette, he is talking to some unknown party about his relationship with Felix, whom he met at Oxford.
I wasn’t in love with him, although everyone thought I was … I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.
Oliver’s actual feelings become the lens through how we view the timeline of events, beginning in 2006 as the two start school. From the onset, Oliver is captivated by the beautifully rich and just plain beautiful Felix (Jacob Elordi). Oliver manages to ingratiate himself into Felix’s clique of rich friends and cling-ons on account of his earnestness and sensitivity. The two become such good friends at Oxford that Felix invites Ollie to Saltburn, his familial estate, for summer break. Saltburn ain’t no Bel-Air mansion. It’s a freaking castle.
Oliver is a have-nots staying in a house of have-it-alls. Way out of his league, I got the sense Saltburn was going to swallow him whole without bothering to chew. You know, like the rich tend to do with those outside of its class.
SALTBURN is a seduction, a sensory overload. Every frame is a painting full of wealth and decadence, and also isolation. Large rooms and open spaces. Free to roam around and lose yourself. Callbacks and comparisons to Stanley Kubrick films abound. The auteur who favored the Academy ratio (1.33:1) in a widescreen dynamic would compose his shots to get us that much closer to his subjects. Kubrick made us unhinged watching a writer go mad inside the Overlook Hotel. Fennell shoots the same, allowing us to peer in, but Oliver doesn’t lose his mind behind the gates of Saltburn. Instead, his timidness, which started to lessen at Oxford, draws Felix’s family’s attention like moths to a flame. They are in awe of Felix’s new friend, liking Oliver more than the last one he brought home. When Felix isn’t in earshot, Oliver is warned that he’ll tire of him eventually, as if Ollie was a Sheriff Woody toy soon to be replaced by a Buzz Lightyear. To remain in the family’s good graces, Oliver will do terrible things. Some will make viewers squirm.
For two-thirds, I was attempting to navigate my way around Saltburn and discover the gambit. Either the family was toying with Oliver or his befriending Felix was by design. Even when I could see the finish line, I didn’t expect the final sequence. I’m sure no one will see it coming.
When viewed in the guise of noir, SALTBURN is a banger that clicks in ways I didn’t expect. Emerald Fennell takes one of noir’s most iconic tropes and turns it on its head, which few have been able to do. It doesn’t always work, but watching Barry Keoghan turn the screws definitely keeps you involved and on your toes. He knows how to play vulnerable, but in this film, Keoghan shows he can be just as quick to curl a scowl into a smirk.
Jacob Elordi, who dazzled as a bad-tempered Elvis in PRISCILLA, changes course, playing Felix as a tall, lanky, superficial man-donna. He’s alluring with a cool ease. It’s no wonder men and women want to be with him. This includes his queer cousin, Farleigh (GRAN TURISMO star Archie Madekwe). He’s not quite the aristocrat Felix is, but he’s the family member who is most suspicious of Oliver, even when all three are at Oxford.
Tensions and manipulations boil slowly on the grounds of Saltburn. Fennell’s tawdry thriller has a droll sensibility in introducing the rest of Felix’s family. (When we see them, they are sitting listlessly watching SUPERBAD.) Rosamund Pike is effervescent as Felix’s mother, Elspeth. Her modeling days may be in the rearview, but she is still a looker. She also has a tendency to be casual when being cruel. Richard E. Grant, as Sir James, is every bit as shallow. Alison Oliver surprises as the trendy, bulimic sister, Venetia; her forced actions by Oliver are reciprocated in a third-act monologue worthy of a mike drop. And Fennell gets her PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN star, Carey Mulligan, to do a supporting role as Pamela. She’s like the party guest who doesn’t know it’s time to go, and the hosts don’t know how to tell her to leave.
After ornamenting the debauchery of Old Hollywood in BABYLON, cinematographer Linus Sandgren makes us tipsy with old-money opulence. From sun-drenched lounging to hushed conversations under the moonlight, Sandgren runs the gamut in highlighting the divined and the depraved. All of which are perfect for a cruel summer that not even Swifties could have expected. Unfortunately, Fennell makes the mistake of explaining herself. The ways in which Keoghan’s Oliver lingers and longs to seek comfort regardless of those around him is enough of a reason.
Grade: B
