Saltburn Movie Review

Saltburn (2023)

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Written by: Emerald Fennell
Directed by: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe, Sadie Soverall, Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan
Rated: R
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Plot
A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family's sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.

Verdict
It's a movie that wants to be about something more than it actually explores a theme. There's classism and a need to fit in, but motivations are so vague that you can ascribe anything or nothing to it. Why did Oliver act this way? While this type of movie is often about taking down the rich, this movie portrays the rich as victims. It's the people that try to weasel into that world that are bad. It's not easy to relate to that, and Oliver's motivations are never clear. It's outlandish just for the sake of it.
It depends.

Review
This is Emerald Fennell's second movie after Promising Young Woman.

Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is an awkward new student at Oxford on the outside looking in. Then he befriends the most charismatic student on campus, Felix (Jacob Elordi), and joins the popular crowd. While Felix accepts him, the other rich students see him as the lower class poor kid on scholarship. Felix may like Oliver because he's one of the few that doesn't fawn over him.

Barry Keoghan plays Oliver

Felix lives in the ridiculous estate of Saltburn. With nowhere to go over break, Oliver goes to Felix's house. Oliver has to navigate this world where the house is a maze, there's multiple butlers, and  they dress for dinner. Oliver is lost in this house with its own world and unique set of customs.

Oliver seems to be obsessed with Felix to an unhealthy degree. Then this takes a twist where Oliver, seemingly benign, appears to be running a game on Felix's mom. To what end? Oliver has a newfound confidence. Is it from living on this estate or is what we saw previously an act? What is Oliver doing? He's pitting everyone against each other, but I wasn't sure why. Is it to take down the rich, because he enjoys the drama, or is he trying to stay in good graces and prove vital to the family? It feels like a twist is imminent because I can't figure out what Oliver is doing.

This takes a turn when Felix takes Oliver to his parents to patch things up. Felix discovers that Oliver told a few lies. Oliver was playing everyone. Was it to create an intriguing story or due to embarrassment about his working class parents? Either way Felix is upset about the deceit.

Jacob Elordi plays Felix

Oliver is distraught, but was all of Oliver's performance just to get in with the family? Is there more to this? The movie seems to be about a person with an obsession to fit in and be part of the elite. Oliver shows up and it's the downfall of this rich family. This reminds me of a movie I can't quite place.

Each passing moment in the movie makes Oliver more distasteful. Does Oliver want to be Felix or just live in that kind of luxury? Then it appears to be malicious, but we never know why. You could look at this as Oliver wanting to fit in and experience luxury, but he seeming becomes spiteful. This is also the downfall of a rich family because they let someone lower class in which is certainly an angle. The final scene is set to the song Murder on the Dance Floor and that just feels like it's trying too hard. It's a scene just to give you something to talk about that's not related to the plot or themes but how far the scene takes things. It's that last scene that makes the movie seem hollow. Instead of something that brings the themes and ideas into focus, we get spectacle just to make the audience react and talk about something on the way out. The problem is they're talking about a scene and not the themes.