Oscar winning Emerald Fennell’s newest film Saltburn was released everywhere on Thanksgiving, and I decided to see it over my Thanksgiving break. Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria, Priscilla) star as Oliver and Felix respectively. Oliver is a working-class student who becomes friends with the enticing Felix Catton and his group of rich friends. Felix decides to invite Oliver to his family’s estate, Saltburn, after learning about Oliver’s troubled past. Once the movie shifts to their time spent at Saltburn, it is very reminiscent of Call Me By Your Name, except a bit darker. It always feels like something is lurking underneath the surface.
Other stars include Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, I Care A Lot) as Elspeth Catton, Felix’s very blunt mother, Archie Madekwe (Gran Tuismo, Midsommar) as Farleigh Start, Felix’s half-brother, Richard E. Grant (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Lesson) as Sir James Catton, Felix’s socialite dad. The family is an odd group of people, but it’s clear that they are tight knit. They all care about and trust one another in a way that is sometimes hard to understand.
Oliver is the most confusing character. It’s hard to tell what his motives are throughout the movie. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure I understood them completely after having finished the movie. It’s clear that Oliver wants in on Felix’s lifestyle. He wants the comfort, the money, the family that Felix has and might do just about anything to get it. But I think what was the hardest to understand was Oliver’s feelings toward Felix. The movie begins with an older Oliver considering whether or not he loved Felix romantically, but he decides he didn’t. However, I think it’s arguable that he did love Felix in that way, at least for a certain time in his life. It’s clear that he had an attraction to him, albeit a very gross and pervasive one sometimes, but he seemed to be truly heartbroken when their friendship came to an end.
One thing that I found interesting while watching was the decision to cast Jacob Elordi as Felix. I think we can all agree that Elordi is an attractive person, which made sense for the character of Felix, but it’s also common for Elordi to be typecast as the antagonist. In Euphoria he plays the sometimes terrifying Nate Jacobs, recently in Priscilla he played Elvis who is not a good guy in the movie, not necessarily an antagonist, but in The Kissing Booth movies he plays Noah who is an overbearing best-friend’s-brother love interest. My point is that when I hear Jacob Elordi, I think of a mean and scary character. (Nothing to do with Jacob Elordi as a person, he seems really nice actually). So, when I saw he would be in Saltburn I expected him to be the villain in the story, but he’s not, not even in the slightest. Emerald Fennell has a history of playing with viewer’s expectations as well. In her debut Oscar winning film, Promising Young Woman, she casts comedy actors who are known for playing the good guys as all the questionable men who are one step away from committing sexual assault. This seemingly miniscule detail can actually make a huge impact when you’re watching a film because our minds link certain actors to certain roles. When Fennell flips our expectations we can feel somewhat disoriented and surprised by the direction that the film goes in. At least that is how I felt watching Saltburn.
Warning for major spoilers ahead.
In regard to Barry Keoghan, the only movie that I had seen him in before was The Banshees of Inisherin, an Oscar nominated film last season. In this movie, he plays a young person who just wants a friend. He’s nice and sweet, which is a stark contrast to Oliver in Saltburn. Oliver portrays himself that way in the beginning, but has much darker, sometimes psychopathic tendencies. His performance is hard to watch at times because of the horrible things that he does, but it is a great performance. Keoghan has a talent in playing polar opposite sides to a person. One minute he is a thankful house guest, the next he is drinking dirty bath water that Jacob Elordi was bathing in. It’s hard to understand what his motives are, as I mentioned before. The final scene sort of answers that question. It seems like Oliver just wanted the house and the money, but other moments throughout the film paint it differently. He seems to genuinely love Felix and the time that he spent in Saltburn, so why would he go and kill off everyone who he spent that time with? I think the turning point for him was when Felix found out that Oliver’s parents are alive and well. Oliver’s imagined world came crashing down on him and he couldn’t return to the joy that he had that summer in Saltburn, so he decided to fix it himself. He put on a steely face and killed anyone who would stop him from getting to spend the rest of his life at Saltburn.
Saltburn is vile, beautiful, passionate, twisted, and sensual all at the same time. Emerald Fennell is extremely talented at evoking a multitude of conflicting emotions all at once. As I watched I simultaneously never wanted it to end and begged for it to be over at the same time. It’s weird and messed up and funny but ultimately shocking. I can’t say that I recommend it because of the truly horrible things that happen in this movie, but I’m glad(?) that I watched it, and I definitely can’t wait to see what Emerald Fennell comes up with next.
