Saltburn
Emerald Fennell isn’t looking to make comfortable controversial films that get people talking. Can a movie be comfortable and controversial? I think so; it just depends of how hard the director decides to aim for their ideas. Fennell- in this film and her previous one, “Promising Young Woman”- is about utilizing a sledgehammer to get to her ideas. Here, the film looks lush and striking, but at the center of it is a tale of two narcissists- the one telling the story, and the one he becomes fixated with. I’m curious if anyone else felt as though Fennell was making a riff on Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” in “Saltburn.” I couldn’t help but see Barry Keoghan’s Oliver Quick in the same manner as Ryan O’Neal’s Barry for Kubrick; Oliver is someone who is open to lying outright for the purpose of getting what he wants- like Barry, he is a climber up the ladder of class. The twist for Fennell, however, is that Oliver gets what he wants, while Kubrick ultimately batters Barry down. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.
If you watched “Promising Young Woman,” you get the impression that Fennell is not fond of the sort of privilege that allows people to get away with awful behavior; while her protagonist is killed in the end, she certainly gets the vengeance she wanted. Here, we are entirely in Oliver’s perspective from the first moments. He is getting ready to start the year at Oxford and it’s difficult for him to make friends. He feels a bit sullen and isolated, and on the soundtrack, he is explaining his feelings about Felix, the wealthy student whom he finds himself befriending. Felix is played by Jacob Elordi, and he is just as self-centered as Oliver is. The moment Oliver first sees him, though, his fixation starts. He is peeping in Felix’s room as he’s with a woman, and when Oliver’s father dies, Felix invites him to his family’s home, Saltburn. He is taken in as one of the family, but Oliver’s obsession begins to unbalance the family, and when a terrible secret is revealed, things really start to unravel.
“Saltburn” is a film that some people have called shocking, and yes there are some shocking scenes in it, but Fennell isn’t out to make an exploitation film. This is about how Oliver’s unbalanced worldview gets to everyone in Felix’s family, and unbalances the power dynamic their wealth allows them. It’s an interesting premise, but it feels very shallow. Each character has a personality that is defined early on, and doesn’t really deviate from it. Even as Oliver and Felix get closer, I don’t feel like there’s a single hint that Felix truly cares about Oliver- he just likes that Oliver seems to care. There’s a bit of “Talented Mr. Ripley” to the premise, as well, but at least in that film, we get the sense that Tom is lost, and can never truly find happiness after all he has done. Oliver has his happiness at the end; that’s arguably the thing that left me most uncomfortable in the film.
I can recognize the wonderful production values that went into this film- the production design itself, the costumes, the cinematography by Linus Sandgren and the score by Anthony Willis. The actors do what they can- including Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant as Felix’s parents- but ultimately, I’m left feeling hollow at the end of it all, and disinterested in the fates of any of the characters.
