Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Saltburn, written and directed by Emerald Fennell, follows Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford who struggles to fit in. He tries to get the attention of one of his classmates, Felix. As their friendship grows so does Oliver’s infatuation with Felix, eventually leading him to destroy those around him. Starring Barry Keoghan as Oliver and Jacob Elordi as Felix, Saltburn became a popular conversation once it premiered. From what I’ve seen, it’s been split decisions all around, meaning people either loved or hated the movie. I don’t claim a side, but I do have an opinion toward the movie, and I would call it disappointment.
This movie had great performances from every single character, which is something I admire. I think all actors brought life to the characters which is definitely an aspect that is high ranked in the things I love about this movie. Insufferable characters are truly one of the greatest things in storytelling when done right. When a character talks or just gives a certain look and it instills disgust and anger in the audience, it gives the green light that the script and actor brought the character to life, which is what I think this movie did. Even in terms of characters whom we are meant to like as an audience, for example, Felix, known to be charming in the film, truly portrays that (My honorable mentions are Rosamund Pike as Elspeth Catton, Archie Madekwe as Farleigh and Jacob Eloridi as Felix).
The cinematography of the film is simply a chef’s kiss. Every scene could easily be a screenshot from Tumblr which is phenomenal. Something I picked up on was the film’s use of color and how it stands out when Oliver is going through an internal struggle. A good example is when he and Felix first had a fight and he is thinking about going up to Felix at the bar or not. The same coloring is shown again during his birthday party during his and Felix’s last argument. I also enjoyed the architect’s digest moment when Felix went around Saltburn giving a tour. Camera angles, closeups, the movie being shot on film, there were a lot of choices from the director, Emerald Fennell, which was nice to see. I feel like it helped set the tone of the movie and made it interesting to watch to get an inkling of what the characters are thinking and gives you time to appreciate the emotions of the characters.
When it came to the shock value scenes, I was disgusted and, yes, I highly wished I didn’t see the things I did. However, I think it’s interesting for the plot, but I also think it would have been enticing and hit harder to the audience if the overall script was better. After viewing the film, the gut-wrenching scenes don’t seem earned to the script.
To sum it up, I feel like the script is a puzzle and once put together you find out the puzzle is made up of three different images. The script felt like a collage, there were themes that I thought the movie was about and then it steered me in the opposite direction. I wouldn’t have disliked this if it pieced up together at the end.
The last quarter of the movie is where the motives of Oliver become a blur. Why does he feel the need to take over Saltburn? Is he trying to take everything from Felix? What’s the point of taking things away from someone dead? From what I gather, his admiration for Felix has always been there and once it’s confirmed that it can’t be reciprocated because he found out about Oliver’s lies, he decides to end his admiration as a whole. It turned into hatred thus leading him to murder his family and take Saltburn. If he knew there was no going back he could have simply killed Felix and then went on about his life. However, we see him slowly take down his family members in the middle of the movie and take over Saltburn in the end, which made me think that it was an “eat the rich” movie.
We know Oliver doesn’t fit into the Rich population at Oxford, but we don’t see how it affects him in ways other than him getting comments from his peers. A good comparison would be to Bong Joon-ho’s, Parasite, where we see how the characters live their daily lives and how it affects them in every aspect. We see how it improves when they work for a rich family and how the division causes a rift in their lives even while working for the family. I love a good “show, not tell” in storytelling and I feel like this movie lacks that. The twist of Oliver lying and him coming from a lovely home and family low-key takes from his motives of taking Saltburn. I’m not saying that because he’s middle class he couldn’t feel a class divide or struggle, it’s just that as the audience we can’t see where he is coming from because all up until then we have just heard about his upbringing from Oliver himself.
The overall twist would’ve been amazing if signs of Oliver’s motives were shown here and there. After the twist, all I felt was that he had to create a story of his upbringing to get a liking of Felix to go to Saltburn. He felt like he had to lie to his family so he could stay at school to make it appear that he had nowhere to go in the summer to go to Saltburn. Okay, that is fine, but then what is the appeal of Saltburn? Was it to take over due to his struggle/hatred for the rich, wanting to be in Felix’s presence, or both?
I also believe his love for Felix isn’t a bad part of the story, I think it makes it interesting. At the beginning of the movie, we see it vividly, and then we see it fade out in the middle of the movie only to come back at the end. I wish in the middle part of the movie when Oliver stays at Saltburn, we see a lot more of how he views Felix, other than the bath scene.
I think both aspects — Oliver trying to take over Saltburn and his admiration for Felix — needed to flow better. In the middle of the movie, it just feels like oil and water, where we go from one topic to another and don’t see how they can work together for an overall bigger theme. As the plot went on, the gut-wrenching scenes didn’t seem earned to the script given, which is why I was left disappointed. I believe this movie had so much potential to be a front-runner in its genre of 2023. I seriously believe it could have been historic in terms of writing and not just granting us Jacob Elordi bathwater candles.