'Saltburn' A Review

Saltburn is a dramedy/thriller about Oxford first year Oliver(Barry Keoghan) who becomes infatuated with the rich/popular/handsome Felix(Jacob Elordi) and his crowd and semi-befriends him scoring an invitation to spend the summer at Felix's family estate the titular Saltburn.

Keoghan is miscast and out of his depth, Oliver never feels like an actual human being and more a collection of ticks and tactics that Keoghan employs. It is clearly A Performance. He has his same superhero build from The Eternals which is unnatural for his frame and which he is clearly not comfortable with so above and beyond the deliberately awkward performance his physicality is also stilted, one would presume part of the reason is that there are extended scenes of Keoghan naked none-the-less it serves only to make the performance less believable. The supporting cast, at least the younger individuals, come across as equally inauthentic, it doesn't help that all of them are 8-12 years too old for their roles, presumably the characters are supposed to be in their teens. Part of the issue is that the film is tonally inconsistent changing from scene-to-scene- is it comedy, farce, melodrama, thriller, magical realism- the film can't decide, wants to do it all and in so doing dilutes its intent. The veteran performers who have the smaller 'adult' roles are much more assured- Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Carey Mulligan- but this isn't about them and their ability to provide consistent characterizations and ride the tonal shifts doesn't trickle down to the younger cast who are the focus.

The film looks incredible with some beautiful sometimes provocative shots and sequences, but it is clear cool looking scenes and challenging images take priority over narrative/coherence. The score is inconsistent, sometimes pitch perfect and elevating the action other times dragging the viewer to a particular feeling by the ear. Other than Keoghan the big issue is the script, first and foremost it is transparently derivative it is The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Call Me By Your Name with a dash of Euphoria. Its influences are so glaring that it quickly goes past 'inspired by' to 'lifted from'. The motivations of Oliver(and Felix and his sister and cousin) are always opaque, there is very little context provided for any of the characters and their behavior is so varied its as if these things don't exist. As a result they are not people but kind of vacant decadent teen archetypes pantomiming prescribed plot beats. Further, the morals/messaging are so convoluted it is unclear what the point of it all even is, presumably that's the intent, to be thought-provoking, but the what's conveyed is an inert apathy.

Writer/director Emerald Fennell's freshman feature Promising Young Woman was a revelation, a knockout. This still shows ambition, shows tremendous talent, but has none of that thematic power or pointed characterization. Ultimately it is, like its subjects, a vacuous indulgent mess with very little to be entertained by or learned from.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.