Film Review - Saltburn
Images courtesy of Warner Bros.
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn is a frighteningly delicious and decadent dessert, one that you immediately regret eating, but cannot get off your mind no matter how hard you try. Set in 2006, we follow the shy and perennial outsider Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), as he is slowly pulled into the tantalisingly lush world of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), a fellow student at his college in Oxford. Felix exudes the effortless charm and utter sureness of oneself that comes from unbelievable generational wealth. Oliver has had to scrounge and claw his way to the prestigious heights of Oxford, coming from a broken family of addiction, trauma and neglect. This makes Felix all the more intoxicating to Oliver, who appears to be able to give him that which he has always desired, security and a life far away from the mess and filth of his old life.
Felix equally takes to Oliver, finding his backstory both intriguing and terribly sad. The pair’s friendship really solidifies, Felix eventually inviting Oliver back to his home ‘Saltburn’ to stay with him and his family over the school break. To call Saltburn a ‘house’ is something of a gross understatement. Saltburn is rather like a grand, palatial planet instead, with its own gravitational pull, that Oliver cannot help but be sucked into. Also residing at Saltburn during Oliver’s stay are Felix’s mother (Rosamund Pike) Elspeth and father (Richard E. Grant) Sir James Catton, his sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), and the watchful cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe).
Oliver is thrown head-first into this dizzying world of luscious dinner parties, raucous costume balls and deranged karaoke sessions. The Cattons are your typical out-of-touch elite upper-class family, dressing for dinner and making gleeful eyes at one another when Oliver fails to seamlessly fit into their world of strange rules and practises, such as serving oneself at breakfast rather than ordering food from the waitstaff. Oliver is mething of a fascinating bird to this family, a story to be passed around for the entertainment of their guests who delight in the gruesome details of Oliver’s upbringing. However before long, Oliver seems to be right at home, and the idea of leaving Saltburn, becomes more and more of an impossibility.
Whilst I did utterly enjoy this film, I will admit that the ending was somewhat predictable, and not as shocking as Fennell undoubtedly intended it to be. However, perhaps Saltburn’s strength lies instead in its ability to lure and seduce its audience with the heady mix of brilliant acting in particular from Keoghan who hands in a stellar, exhilarating performance, and the visuals of the film itself; dark and sensual, quiet and bizarre. Although parts were foreseeable, I must say that Saltburn was ultimately not the film I thought it was going to be. It was a sinisterly, darkly funny ride that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since leaving the cinema.
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Saltburn is screening in cinemas from November 16th. For tickets and more info, click here.