This article contains spoilers for Saltburn (2023)
What happens if you take The Talented Mr. Ripley, strip it of its themes, and fill it with half-baked moral transgressions? You get 2023’s Saltburn, which tells the story of Oliver Quick, a social outcast and Oxford student who becomes enamored with his wealthy and beautiful classmate, Felix Catton, and heeds an invite to Felix’s family estate over the summer.
Provocation and raunchiness can be effective elements of film. For instance, Poor Things, one of my top picks among 2023’s new releases, incorporates twice as many of these qualities as Saltburn does. But what Poor Things does better is that it gives audience-goers an emotional payoff. In Saltburn, impactful moments like the infamous bathtub scene or Oliver’s grave rendezvous could have resonated more if the film had provided a necessity for them. However, by the movie’s end, I couldn’t shake the feeling that these scenes were squandered. They lack an emotional payoff that justifies their inclusion. Saltburn aspires to be wild and transgressive, yet it falls short of genuinely achieving either.
The most glaring deficiency in Saltburn is its lack of a clear message. Take, for instance, the theme of mental illness. It seems implausible, given the absence of any significant resolution to Oliver’s apparent mental delusions. As for themes of love and obsession? They, too, fall flat, especially considering that Oliver’s supposed love interest, Felix Catton, is discarded as the first murder victim and is thereafter forgotten by our protagonist. The film’s approach to class consciousness is equally perplexing, portraying an upper-class family as tragic victims of a middle-class boy in a manner so bizarre it almost parodies a genuine movie. It’s remarkable how the film manages to convey absolutely nothing of substantive value.
The depiction of class is another area where Saltburn spectacularly fails. For example, it was clear at the onset which class Fennell’s family belonged to, as the script treats the Cattons adoringly. Even when Felix realizes Oliver has lied to him about his father being dead and his family being poor, he is exceedingly kind, smiling through dinner with Oliver’s mother and allowing Oliver to stay at Saltburn until his birthday party is over. Venetia, Felix’s sister, is venomous but never really without reason. Felix’s mother, Elspeth, is ditzy and out-of-touch but well-meaning and funny. The only Catton family member shown to be genuinely nasty is Archie, the poor American cousin.
Conversely, Oliver is quickly depicted as a dangerous interloper. He sexually imposes himself on Venetia and Archie. He axes the entire family in one way or another. The film’s conclusion seems to suggest that the obscenely wealthy ought to fear the middle class, who might annihilate their family, steal their home, and seize their wealth. Such a divisive and oversimplified portrayal of class dynamics is a disservice, particularly in a film directed by someone of Emerald Fennell’s background as a jewelry heiress and Oxford graduate.
The ending is where Saltburn completely falls apart. Oliver’s plan, so obvious throughout the movie, makes the reveal lack subtlety and feel like an unnecessary plot twist. Fennell bombards the audience with a flashback montage of scenes we saw just ten minutes earlier, none of which offer any new insight. Oliver tampered with Felix’s bike, leading to their initial encounter. Wow! He had money in his wallet when he pretended to be broke. Hardly shocking! These “reveals” aren’t surprising because we’ve known since Oliver started licking the bathtub drain that he’s an oddball manipulating all these characters. By the time the credits rolled, I was left wondering about the point of Saltburn. Even after months of pondering and reading reviews, I’m no closer to finding an answer.
Saltburn has emerged as my most disappointing film of 2023. As someone who appreciated Fennell’s debut, Promising Young Woman (which, admittedly, shared many of the same narrative and ending issues as this one), I approached her second film with an open mind. However, Saltburn has proven to be a challenge to defend or even comprehend. I’m hopeful that her third film will recapture the essence of her first, marking Saltburn as just a sophomore slump in her filmography.