Spoilers!
Just to give this film its gay creds right off the bat, there's a scene in which Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) espies Felix (Jacob Elordi), masturbating in the bath. When Felix leaves their shared bathroom, Oliver, watching the water (and other stuff) drain, bends down and drinks some of the spunk-enhanced bath water. It's a unique scene in a movie that could have been a contender -- but isn't quite.
Saltburn has been called Brideshead Revisited meets The Talented Mr. Ripley, and that's accurate, up to a point. Working class scholarship student Oliver arrives at Oxford in 2006 and encounters aristocratic Felix. Very much the outsider, Oliver has no friends except for a quite mad maths genius, whose outburst in the dining hall at the start of the film lets us know that madness lies this way. After a number of encounters with Felix Catton, Oliver is invited to Saltburn, the Catton estate. We meet the eccentric inhabitants of Saltburn, beginning with Paul Rhys as Duncan the butler. Rhys, one of the great British actors (I saw him play Uncle Vanya on stage), seems to be channelling Bela Lugosi in Night Monster. The entire Catton family are nuts, from the parents (Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike) to sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). Mum: "I was a lesbian for a while. But it was all too wet for me. Men are so lovely and dry.”
As the film progresses, Oliver begins to turn from a timid, self conscious boy to a self assured, perceptive, predatory, and almost sadistic man. There are parties, raves, fine china, beautiful rooms (Felix: "This is the King's bedroom. Actually the bed still has some of Henry VIII’s spunk on it."), sex, death, even a bit of necrophilia thrown in. Fennell's script is not the best, and the film's pacing is off, leading to scenes that run to longeurs. The acting is pretty good, although Keoghan is too old for the role of Oliver. He is very good in the movie's final scene, a wild, totally nude dance.
Some reviews (particularly the Guardian and The NY Times) have not been kind to Saltburn. The NY Times review (which is a lot of fun) concludes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/movi ... eview.html
I’m even left doubting Fennell’s expertise in main characters. Are we meant to clock a nerd who, when he sheds the clothes and spectacles, makes you as horny as Felix is supposed to make him? Barry Keoghan is trying to create a role out of the disparate parts of other ones (Norman Bates, Tom Ripley, Patrick Bateman), yet doesn’t get all the way there. He couldn’t have. There is no “there.”
The whole movie seems to exist for its coda, and presumably the prosthetics designer whose name appears in the closing credits. It’s another music-video fantasia, but so cynical, literal-minded and literally cheeky that I cringed my way through it. And it asks a lot of Keoghan, who could have built a memorable, original character for Fennell. But real acting is not what Fennell’s after here. Oliver has a decent amount of strategic sex and Keoghan does his share of nudity, but the only pornographic thing about the movie is the house.
The Spectator (UK) liked the film:
Fearless and intoxicating: Saltburn reviewed
Some have said it’s Brideshead gone evil, with Tom Ripley vibes, but director Emerald Fennell is more daring than Waugh or Highsmith
"Saltburn may have nothing to say, ultimately, but neither does a roller coaster. You’re in it for the ride. As for the ending (and the very final scene, which will be talked about, a lot), it’s a killer. From what I could tell, watching though my fingers."
But back to masturbation. The scene of Oliver masturbating on Felix's grave is well done. Maybe you could call Saltburn a total jerk-off of a movie, but it is enjoyable, in an odd way. But it should have been better.
Barry Keoghan as Oliver.
