SALTBURN

Directing: B-
Acting: A-
Writing: C
Cinematography: A
Editing: B-

Saltburn is a beautifully shot narrative with inconsistencies to the point of distraction. It’s fun to watch while it’s happening, then a twist comes at the end that forces a re-examination of everything that came before, with the inevitable conclusion that the twist is unearned.

I came into this movie expecting something fun, sexy, borderline scandalous. I already knew about the infamous bathtub drain and gravesite scenes. Neither of them really lived up to the hype, failed to offer much in the way of shock value, although the bathtub drain was still pretty effectively gross (more because of dirty bathwater than bodily fluids).

The film really kicks into high gear when Oliver (Barry Keoghan) finally arrives at the Saltburn estate of the film’s title, home of the filthy rich college classmate, Felix (Jacob Elordi), who has invited him to stay. Felix’s parents are wonderfully cast with Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant, as vaguely oblivious characters whose wealth has made them entertainingly detached, superficial, and catty. The moment Oliver meets them, the dialogue crackles, and you want to watch a whole movie just about this family.

Instead, Saltburn seems to fancy itself a lite version of class satire, except it never has any real bite. Rounding the cast are Alison Oliver as Venetia, Felix’s sister with an eating disorder; Archie Madekwe as Farleigh, Felix’s multiracial cousin visiting from America (details that could be a goldmine for exploration that never happens); and Carey Mulligan as Pamela, a friend of Felix’s parents who is also staying and on the cusp of overstaying her welcome. Mulligan in particular gets surprisingly short screen time and nothing of real substance to work with, even though she gets top billing with the rest of the cast—evidently she just wanted to work with writer-director Emerald Fennel again after starring in Promising Young Woman.

Saltburn is thus Emerald Fennell’s second feature film as writer-director, and a pattern is already emerging, in which a clearly talented filmmaker has some deeply compelling ideas, and then squanders them in various ways with a truly unnecessary twist ending. In the case of Saltburn, the ending practically negates everything that came before it, calling into question the idea that Oliver was ever truly obsessed with Felix, or possibly in love with him, as we were led all the while to believe. Ultimately, during an extended scene in which we see Oliver dancing naked through the estate house for so long we are struck by a body so hot it shockingly nearly rival’s Jacob Elordi’s, we are left to wonder if all he ever wanted was the house itself. And: why? That part is a mystery.

And on the road to this inexplicable ending, there are shifts of power between characters that never get explained. One moment the cousin, Farleigh, is acting pointedly superior to Oliver. In a later scene Oliver gains an upper hand, I guess, by going into Farleigh’s room and, one could argue, sexually assaults him. Why Farleigh would act frightened and intimidated in that scene and then turn around and behave the next day with the same superiority as though the nighttime intrusion never happened, is anyone’s guess. Similar shifts happen between Oliver and Felix’s sister, Venetia.

No such shift ever happens with Felix himself, who seems to remain in Oliver’s thrall throughout—until the end. I won’t spoil what ultimately happens to Felix, except to say that Fennell taks her time to make that specifically clear, during which time I could not stop thinking about it as I was utterly baffled.

Saltburn is a rare breed of film in its quality of visual execution, and great performances, making you feel for most of its runtime that you’re watching something good. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind watching it again just for the georgeous cinematography, of both the sprawling estate and the captured beauty of Keoghan’s and Elordi’s bodies (and, emphatically: both of them). Ditto the eccentric chemistry between everyone in Felix’s filthy rich family, who dress up for dinner, are woken every morning by servants, and are served breakfast as a family in the mornings.

Oliver is subtly manipulating Felix, and then the rest of his family, throughout, which we are meant to understand going in. And then that ending comes, and there’s nothing subtle about it whatsoever, nor was anything that came before it, apparently. Oliver becomes a cartoon, essentially. I left the theater wondering what the point of it all was.

I thought it would burn a little more.

Overall: B-