As a movie critic, I’m so glad we have Emerald Fennell in this world. Her first feature, “Promising Young Woman”, was terrific (and snagged her a screenplay Oscar, and best picture nomination). This young actress has become a promising young writer/director. Her second movie “Saltburn” has had my wife and I talking about it every day for the last five days, after having gone to the Angelika Film Center to catch it before Thanksgiving (you think your family has problems, see this flick).
Now, because my wife and I have been talking about it all week, doesn’t mean we loved everything about it. We had mixed feelings, although we were both glad we saw it, and were never bored watching it.
This story felt like “Brideshead Revisited” meets “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” and a few other things we’ve seen before.
I loved that characters weren’t cliche types. The always reliable Rosamund Pike plays a former fashion model, married into a very rich family. Yet she’s not snotty, or didn’t always have a drink in her hand acting like one of the gals in “Absolutely Fabulous.” She felt like a real person (albeit a bit naive), trying to get to know, and being nice, to the friend her son (Jacob Elordi) brought home for the summer.
Speaking of Elordi, after seeing him as Elvis in “Priscilla” and now this, I’m wondering how Patrick Dempsey won the “Sexiest Man Alive” award. Anyway, he plays a charming guy who befriends Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) rather quickly. He realizes he’s from a poor family without the best home life, and takes him under his wing.
It’s great to see Keoghan get his first starring role. He’s been brilliant in all the support roles he’s had up to this point. And in this, he’ll give new meaning to “I piss on your grave.” Oh, and you thought Tom Cruise dancing around in a big living room in “Risky Business” was memorable. Well, does this movie have a scene that blows that one out of the water. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Richard E. Grant, who was so brilliant in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (but in the disappointing “The Lesson” from earlier this year), plays a clueless father, and he’s solid (although there are a few scenes with him where I felt the writing was too over-the-top, and not something I felt that character would do). I felt the same with Carey Mulligan's character. She plays a flaky woman who won’t leave the Saltburn estate because she has nowhere else to go.
It’s not just a terrific cast, the production values are stellar as well. The country manor in England is gorgeous. The scenes shot at Oxford are well done, too. [Fun fact: Emerald Fennell went there.] That’s where we first meet Oliver, who is there on scholarship. He’s quickly made fun of for his jacket (by the terrific Archie Madekwe of “Midsommar”). We find out later he’s the cousin of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi).
Unfortunately for Felix, only a nerdy math major befriends him (in their first meeting at a dining hall, it also felt unrealistic hearing him scream). Yet it shows you why Oliver might yearn to fit in with the cool kids. Felix is clearly the coolest of the cool kids and again, the great writing makes it so that he’s never, ever a jerk. Even when he’s sleeping with a few different women, we don’t feel like he’s a cad. And his friendship with Oliver begins organically, it feels like something his character would do (despite his cousin always looking side-eyed at Oliver, and occasionally making snide comments). So it doesn’t seem odd that after a family tragedy in Oliver’s life, he’s invited to spend the summer at the Saltburn estate (although it doesn’t make a lot of sense when we find out Felix has invited others there previously).
Once at the estate, we see Oliver and sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) checking each other out.
It’s fun to watch, and see what Oliver will do. Sometimes that’s when a comment catches him off guard, other times it’s when he finds out dinners are always black tie, and he has to wear cufflinks (who would’ve thought to bring those for a summer trip?)
The second half of the movie can get a bit nutso and like it was merely trying to shock us; and also a bit formulaic. I also started feeling like it didn’t have the emotional bite it needed, or not as much to say about the upper class as Fennell thinks.
There was an epic movie that could’ve been made with this story and these characters, but it’s a bit too rough around the edges and gets a bit ludicrous in spots. That doesn’t mean the opening tracking shot of Oliver, or the closing tracking shot of a character, aren’t brilliant.
I liked hearing the MGMT song “Time to Pretend” – which was the best song of 2007. It was also cool to hear the Cold War Kids tune “Hang Me Up to Dry” (in my opinion, the best song of the 21st century).
Since 92.8% of movies now have vomit scenes, yes, there are some here.
3 stars out of 5.