Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordie, Archie Madekwe, Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver, Paul Rhys
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 131 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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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.
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 Fennell won a writing Oscar for her initial feature, Promising Young Woman. This was quite a disturbing experience, and her audience is now offered even more disturbing experiences.
This is the story of Oliver Quick, played with sometimes deceptive intensity by Keoghan (Irish, having made an impact with Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Banshees of Inisherin). He narrates, quietly taking us into his confidence, pondering his emotions and motives. From an average family from Preston, though he has some stories about his parents and failures, he wins a scholarship to Oxford, where he is looked down on by elite students. However, he is befriended by the aristocratic Felix Catton (Elordie, who was a very tall Elvis in Priscilla).
Saltburn has a strong cast, especially with Pike at her superior best as the mother and a dithering Grant as the father. Alison Oliver is the precocious daughter and Rhys the most supercilious butler ever on screen. There is an arresting cameo from the promising young woman herself (Mulligan) as Poor Dear Pamela, Saltburn’s unwanted but tolerated guest.
Felix invites Oliver Quick to Saltburn for the summer – a benign gesture, but one that has precarious repercussions for the family as Oliver makes his tentative way in relating to the family members.
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 McEnery in 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 and uncomfortable film – sometimes funny, always serious, a satiric attack on traditional British aristocracy with more than a touch of the mordant.
Keoghan gives a strong and memorable performance, and, in retrospect, especially with the final unmasking and literal self-exposure, a subtle performance. This will probably be talked about for a long time – and it will certainly be interesting to see the next steps in his career.
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