Writer/director Emerald Fennell, I thought, had a moderate success with her 2020 drama Promising Young Woman. Now her latest release Saltburn, currently playing in select theaters, is a tale of class warfare sprouted from a man's nefarious desire. And who better than Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin, 2022) to play a man like that?
When two Oxford students become friends during a semester in the early 2000s, the lifestyle of the rich freewheeling Felix (Jacob Elordi, Priscilla, 2023) intoxicates the shy working-class Oliver (Barry Keoghan). Oliver has academic talent and keen observations, but his clothes, strange behavior and background keep him out of the popular group of cool kids he watches from afar. Once they form a bond of friendship, Felix invites the pitiful Oliver to spend the summer with him at his family's large glamorous estate in the English countryside. I'll give you one guess what the name of this wealthy estate is.
Since the dialogue is written with a wry simplicity and believable (but polite) directness, this film doesn't quite reveal why Oliver is so strongly attracted to this shiny new world. Is he just happy to be included in upper class luxury? Does he hope to be rich himself someday like his welcoming hosts? Or is he secretly in love with his handsome young friend? Maybe it's everything. This mystery of the main character's incessant longing, and the complex relationship between two men, reminds me of past films Brideshead Revisited (2008) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). (Brideshead Revisited was also adapted into a 1981 British TV series.)
Saltburn is one half a twisted psychological thriller and one half an acerbic social commentary on economic disparity. It has such sinister and kinky surprises that all viewers will be entertained from the vapidly witty, obtuse statements of the upper crust characters, especially Rosamund Pike's (I Care A Lot, 2020) line deliveries, to the tragic scenes of nearly Shakespearean naked despair.
Irish actor Barry Keoghan is absolutely the star of this film who begins as an awkward loner desperate to be posh but then gradually reveals his intense determination through careful lies and sexual manipulation. His performance is such an unnerving tour de force, it's thrilling to watch his obsession grow, devouring everything he can from the rich family's used bath water...to their blood. Barry Keoghan's performance is similar to his casually ominous role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) but with a more awkwardly sexual and quietly confident bent.
The social commentary part of Saltburn is the less successful half with some facets of the 1% life only briefly touched on, like a schizophrenic butterfly trying to land on too many different flowers. And the ending does not achieve the shock it builds toward (except for the oddly campy climax with a hospital bed followed by a dance break that feels wildly out of left field). But the psychological thriller half of Saltburn is terrifically, darkly exciting. Audiences will leave the viewing of this film thinking how the constant wanting of beautiful things can turn disturbing and deadly.
