Saltburn is a black comedy thriller written and directed by Emerald Fennell. The cast includes Barry Keoghan, Jacob, Elordi, Rosamund Pike, and Richard E. Grant.
This peculiar little story starts off in Oxford in the year 2006. Keoghan plays a student named Oliver Quick who is apparently on scholarship sop he does not quite fit in with his wealthier peers. He befriends one of the popular young chaps named Felix Catton, played by Jacob Elordi. As their relationship progresses, Oliver is invited to spend some time at Felix’s ancestral estate known as Saltburn where the aristocratic, eccentric Catton family welcomes the new visitor. Another intriguing addition the cast is Archie Madekwe’s Farliegh Start, an American cousin who has been staying there was also at Oxford. Oliver may not be quite as inept and awkward as he first appears. and long, windy deception begins that leads to murder and grief.
First of all, the story itself has a very intriguing atmosphere. The cast is quite convincing in their performances. Many of the cast members were pretty new to me. I have seen Pike and Grant who play the wealthy parents many times. The younger ones clearly were talented. The set design for the estate was quite striking. The film has some moments of real beauty in the look. The problem here is that Fennell felt the need to include some pretty graphic, sexually perverse behaviors that would have worked better as merely being implied. As far as this being considered a black comedy, well, much of the so-called comedy did not really come through. Fennell seemed to overindulge in the efforts to be shocking. Instead of being shocked or appalled, I found much of the gratuitous sex to be distracting and weird. There is a whole thing at a graveside that is just completely unnecessary and too disgusting for even me to get into, and I have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to the macabre.
The disappointment I had in this film is even more acute because there seemed to be a real effort at some creativity, but some decisions were made that undermined the strengths and turned it into not much more than smut. Also, some of the revelations left a few unanswered questions that could be answered in a sequel I hope is never made.
It’s just a shame I didn’t enjoy this more. I should have researched this one a little better before I saw it, but I was too intrigued by a film could have been more uniquely creative than what we have been getting out of Hollywood lately. The story and the talent were there, but this could have been so much better if Fennell had used a little self-restraint and not tried to gross out her audience.
Reviews, Musings, and Other Things... 