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(120723) With all the high-profile big budget films that recently opened (like
Napoleon and Priscilla) there is a large possibility that the excellent Saltburn
will get lost in the shuffle due to its quirkiness and lack of star power, which
would be a real shame. For Saltburn is an exquisitely shot and wickedly amusing
class drama/black comedy. It is also one of the smarter films around right now.
Saltburn is about an odd pair of opposites that meet at Oxford. Felix is a
handsome, and fun-loving rich kid who is smooth with the ladies while Oliver is
a plain looking, serious, nervous and broke kid in an affluent school. The two
young men meet up by chance (or at least so it appears) then after a family
tragedy Oliver is allowed to stay at the other boy’s family’s expensive mansion
called Saltburn. The relationship has homoerotic overtones and Oliver shows the
depths of his obsession when he goes into the bathtub that Felix ejaculated into
and consumes it.
The film was directed by Emerald Fennel, part of a new generation of excellent
female filmmakers that graduated from acting to film making (others include Lily
Rabe, Molly Gordon and Britanny Snow). Fennell is a double threat, and she is
known both for her fine TV acting and her superlative film direction. She
starred in Call the Midwife (2012 to present) and got an Emmy for best actress
for playing Camilla Bowles in The Crown (2016-present). Also, her debut film
directing job,
Promising Young Woman
(2020) earned three Oscar nominations including best picture (it also made my
Top Ten films of the year list.). I thought this film was just slightly less
impressive.
Because of the way Saltburn deals with social class issues and class envy, it
reminded me both of the classic Joseph Losey film, The Servant (1963), about a
butler who controls his employer, and the more recent, An Education (2009) about
the rich man capriciously using a poor girl for amusement. The whole concept of
an ordinary person moving into a huge mansion with quirky, threatening
characters is also slightly reminiscent of Hitchcock’s classic, Rebecca (1940).
The film seems to be part of a wave of films, called eat the rich movies by film
critics, which reverse traditional rich-poor power dynamics which also includes
Snow Piercer (2013),
Parasite
(2019), and
Triangle of Sadness (2022).
Although the film lacks star power, the cast is uniformly excellent. Carey
Mulligan who has a small but key role here also starred in Fennel’s previous
film,
Promising Young Woman, and she will also be in the upcoming Bradley
Cooper film Maestro. Rosemund Pike whose performance elevated Gone Girl and
earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress is wonderful playing the haughty
matriarch of a rich family.
Barry Keoghan (from The The Banshees of Inisherin) is Oliver Quick, a person of
meager means and a disreputable family who is deeply insecure about his humble
upbringing while interacting with the elite at Oxford The only reason he gets
to go to his prestigious school is because his hard work led to scholarships
while everyone else seems to be there because of their privileged backgrounds.
Oliver meets the filthy rich Felix (Jacob Elordi) by chance and the two become
fast friends. Oliver narrates the story from some future point and the way he
tells it we can ascertain that something bad happened to Feliz.
After a tragedy occurs, Oliver has nowhere to go, and Felix graciously agrees to
let his friend stay with his family during the holiday break. It could be that
Felix also feels sorry for Olivier because he knows that a close family member
died and also that his mom is an alcoholic, and his mom is a drug addict. Oliver
soon learns that Felix’s filthy rich family are so eccentric that they make the
mighty Tenenbaums look like the Beavers. For instance, they overdress for many
occasions and wear suits and ties to play Tennis,
Felix has a complex and troubled relationship with his parents who give him
everything from a material standpoint and not as much from an emotional one.
Rosamund Pike is Lady Elisbeth, the highly privileged mom of Felix who is just
as pretentious as her name. Early on she hurts Oliver with careless chatter. She
reveals her coldness and lack of humanity when after the death of her troubled
friend, Pamela (Carey Mulligan) she declares, “She’d do anything for attention”
implying she died to elevate her social status. But she also has a soft,
compassionate side and eventually seems to care for Oliver as a sort of
surrogate son. Her very polite husband, Sir James, who is even more aristocratic
(well-played by Richard E. Grant) is gracious to his guest, but he seems to tire
of Olivier before his wife.
Farleigh is Felix’s caustic American cousin, and he feels a certain rivalry with
Oliver. He taunts him claiming that he is mere temporary entertainment for the
family when he refers to him as a jack in the box and says, “You’re so real, I
like you much better than last year’s one,” and he eventually tries to destroy
Oliver with idle gossip.
Venetia (Alison Oliver) is quasi sympathetic and has a delicate beauty but from
the beginning we know she will cause trouble. She’s Felix’s troubled and
terminally bored sister who is constantly drunk and goes through wide mood
swings. Also, she has body image problems; she seems to be bulimia and is
constantly throwing up. She flirts with and seduces Oliver, but like the rest of
her family she sees him as a temporary toy or plaything. In a few months she
could easily switch to a new jack in the box.
The film has been criticized because the director Fennell was aristocratic
herself (her dad was a rich jeweler and she attended Oxford) and some critics
claimed she pulls her punches when she mocks the wealthy. But I believe that the
reason the surprise ending works so well is that the rich people are not just
total one-dimensional monsters, and they are sympathetic up to a point.
Eventually we see that not all the characters are what they seem to be and the
payoff in the twist ending is marvelous. Although the film’s basic story is not
particularly special or extraordinary, the splendid performances, artful
direction and gorgeous cinematography elevate the film, and it is at least as
good as some of this year’s Oscar contenders and it has a chance at some minor
nominations.
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