SALTBURN - Mark Reviews Movies

Saltburn, MGM / Amazon Studios

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | November 22, 2023

Nothing about Saltburn is particularly surprising, although writer/director Emerald Fennell certainly seems to believe much of it is. There's our main character, for example, a poor young man who has lucked out with or worked his way into a scholarship at the prestigious Oxford University. Is Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) who he appears to be, or should we just take him at his word and, well, his appearance that there's something else—and probably something darker—going on beneath his socially awkward but clearly upstart manner?

Keoghan is one of the more unique actors working today, capable of being simultaneously creepy, pathetic, and genuinely sympathetic at the same time. As Oliver, the actor defines the role, because he is, apparently, all of those things at once. He's sympathetic, because Oliver says he comes from an impoverished family, with parents who have issues with drug and alcohol addiction, and has just survived his circumstances long enough to find himself at Oxford. Oliver is pathetic, because he's so clearly desperate to fit in and, more importantly, fit in with the right crowd.

That crowd belongs to Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), a tall, handsome, and unthinkably wealthy young man, whose father is literal nobility and whose family lives in a literal castle. Oliver wants to be Felix's friend and, possibly, more than that, if some opening narration is to be believed. At some point after the events of this fairly predictable story, Oliver is telling someone that maybe he was once in love with Felix but that, for certain, he loved the young man. Here's a guy, then, who wants what he can't have, because of who he is and from where he comes, and the only minor twists on the course of this plot come later, when a couple of specifics about Oliver's background, motive, and capacity for deception are adjusted.

The alterations don't really change much, because Oliver tells us who he is—on a more fundamental level than his deepest desire and his socioeconomic background—from the start and Keoghan's distinctive on-screen persona does the rest of the work. The story is basically a straight line of deceit and manipulation to a resolution that might as well be announced with Oliver's introduction.

It's just a matter of finding out how far this character is willing to go with his actions. If the extended epilogue that pieces everything together for us in clear terms is any indication, Fennell definitely believes she has fooled us and needs to point out the ways she really hasn't.

This leaves us with one element of the story that's slightly intriguing: just how creepy Oliver is and can be. Fennell has some wicked fun with this, and Keoghan does, too, especially when his Oliver drops the veil of being uncomfortable and polite, only to reveal something more akin to his true nature. That begins after Oliver finds himself staying at Felix's family castle with the eponymous name over summer break. After his father's death, Oliver is left feeling sad, alone, and terrified of returning home. Felix, who has somewhat become friends with Oliver, invites him for an indefinite stay at Saltburn.

What, really, can be said of the family except the usual? Felix's mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) puts on a good show of being amiable and generous to an old friend (played by Carey Mulligan) who's living at the castle but clearly can't wait for her pal to be out of her way. The father (played by Richard E. Grant) is oblivious in the way of a man who has never wanted for anything in his life, and Felix's younger sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) seems to have a good head on her shoulders, except that she has a habit of falling for her brother's friends. Meanwhile, American cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) knows a clinger-on like Oliver when he sees one—mainly because he is one, too.

They're all shallow people, which is both the point and not much an insightful or cutting one. It's amusing to witness Oliver say exactly what each of them wants to hear—what they need to hear in order to trust and find some remote affection, as they might have for a puppy, for him. We can see the gears moving, which is another reason Keoghan's work is solid here, but to what end? Fennell has made a game of Oliver's inability to behave properly in this society and his almost preternatural ability to understand what everyone wants, but what does he want? Is it as simple as Felix's attention, or is it equally as simple as becoming a part of this family?

Part of the filmmaker's hesitation to give us a straight answer to such a foundational question of drama, of course, is that she has another game in mind—one that has to do with Oliver's actual motive and what he's willing to do to accomplish it. Saltburn hides all of that for far too long, leaving us with a bunch of unsympathetic characters on both ends of the socioeconomic divide and only arriving at some real, palpable drama in the third act. By then, the game is plainly obvious, making the reveal almost painfully so.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products