[8]
Oscar-winning writer/director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) serves up a diabolical pitch-black comedy about an off-kilter Oxford student who ingratiates himself into the life of a handsome classmate and his aristocratic family to dubious and increasingly sinister ends. Barry Keoghan (Oscar nominee for The Banshees of Inisherin) stars as Oliver, who befriends the family’s son, Felix (Frankenstein‘s Jacob Elordi). After Oliver’s father dies, Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s sprawling, historical estate. There Oliver meets Felix’s horny sister (Alison Oliver), their aloof and emotionally distant parents (Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike), a suicidal friend of the family (Carey Mulligan), and Felix’s American cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe).
Saltburn leads you to think it’s following in the footsteps of The Talented Mr. Ripley, with Keoghan obsessing over Elordi the way Matt Damon did Jude Law. And to that end, Oliver spies on Felix masturbating and literally drinks his bath water. But he also sexually engages with the sister and flatters the mother. He wants more than Felix. He wants it all. It’s the American cousin who ends up calling Oliver out, because Farleigh and Oliver want the same thing: to be part of this family, at any cost. The parents make it easy because they’re such shallow, vapid people. Halfway through the film, you start to root for Keoghan. He may be devious, but at least he can give these wealthy snobs what they deserve.
Fennell’s script spirals into supremely dark and sinister places. The Talented Mr. Ripley is an incredible film, but it doesn’t step foot into the shadows where Saltburn charges. A death in the middle of the film begets yet another, and another. Fennell embraces macabre humor in one of my favorite scenes, when Felix’s parents have the butler draw the shades while they’re eating lunch so they don’t have to see the coroner wheel his gurney past the windows. And the film goes remarkably and marvelously further than that.
Keoghan is fearless and indelible here, reminding us of what a considerable talent he is. We feel sorry for him when he’s lonely at school, pining for Felix. We continue to pity him when we see how Felix’s family treat him behind his back. Oliver begins to alienate us at the midpoint, however, when his deceptions come to light. And in an odd, wonderful way, we’re ready to embrace his new role as villain of the second half of the story. There are no false notes in the supporting cast, either. Felix’s parents seem like throwaway roles at first, but they both get meatier scenes as the film progresses. Some of the darkest comedy is reserved for them.
Fennell and her terrific cast spin their tale in an engrossing manner, aided by terrific locations and cinematography. I knew what kind of film this was before I watched it, and it still surprised me. Every now and then, a truly mean and nasty movie like Saltburn does a cinephile’s spirit good.