While Saltburn is the name of a sumptuous English country estate, its sound echoes something like a chafing irritant. Not entirely irrelevant to the themes.
Writer-director, Emerald Fennell, won a writing Oscar for her initial feature, Promising Young Woman. This was quite disturbing experience – and Emerald Fennell’s audience is now offered even more disturbing experiences.
This is the story of Oliver Cook, played with sometimes deceptive intensity by Barry Keoghan (Irish, having made an impact with Killing of a Sacred Deer, Banshees of Innisfail). He narrates, quietly taking us into his confidence, pondering his emotions and motives. He is from Preston, average family, though he has some stories about his parents and failures, scholarship to Oxford, looked down on by elite students, but in a kindly gesture, befriending the aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordie who was a very tall Elvis in Priscilla). He is spurned by Felix’s financially dependent cousin, Kylie (Archie Madekwe who acted in Gran Turismo).
In fact, Saltburn has a a very strong cast, especially at home with Rosamund Pike at her superior best as the mother and a dithering Richard E. Grant as the father. Alison Oliver is the precocious daughter and Paul Rhys the most supercilious Butler ever on screen! And there is an arresting cameo, Pamela the unwanted but tolerated guest at Saltburn, from the Promising Young woman herself, Carey Mulligan.
Felix invites Oliver to Saltburn for the summer – a benign gesture, but very precarious as Oliver makes his tentative way in relating to the family.
So many commentators have made the link between Oliver to Tom Ripley, remembering Anthony Minghella’s classic The Talented Mr Ripley. And, with the country estate, there are references to Brideshead Revisited. And, it is probably fair to say that this is Evelyn Waugh 21st-century style, something of Brideshead Re-revisited, where society has made a descent into the vapid without any trace of the transcendent.
However, a useful comparison might be Pier Paolo Pasolini’s highly controversial 1968 drama, Teorema, an initially sweet Terence Stamp invited to live with the family, his manipulation of each of the characters for their destruction. (And, at this time, there were two British variations on this theme, Michael York in Something for Everyone and Peter McHenery in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane.)
A popular saying, sometimes cliche, is that all is fair in love and war. Oliver confides to us his feelings and his love, and his sometimes provocative sexual behaviour, but, as his stay for the summer goes on, it would seem that for him all is fair in the undermining war he has set out on.
So, certainly a provocative film, certainly an uncomfortable film to watch, sometimes funny, always serious, a satiric attack on traditional British aristocracy, more than a touch of the mordant.
Barry Keoghan certainly gives a strong and memorable performance, and, in retrospect, especially with the final unmasking and literal exposure, a very subtle performance. This will probably be talked about for a long time – and it will certainly be very interesting to see the next steps in his career.
Reviewed by Fr. Peter Malone, MSC
More info about SALTBURN
UK, 2023, 127 minutes, Colour.
Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordie, Archie Madekwe, Rosamund Pike,
Richard E.Grant, Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver, Paul Rhys.
Directed by Emerald Fennell.
Worth Pondering... 