Saltburn (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Fugue Estate

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

If anyone was ever concerned about whether Emerald Fennell would be able to follow up Promising Young Woman with something that had an equal kind of impact, you can exhale now. Saltburn isn't the same kind of movie as her debut, but it goes farther than you'd ever expect it to, and it definitely leaves you with the sense that you've seen something. Or, rather, that you've been punched in the eyes. The movie is part of that proud genre in which the wealthy and elite get what everyone else wishes they had coming to them, a comeuppance of a kind. But, to be frank, this punishment is pretty brutal.

Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) begins attending Oxford University and finds himself shunned due to being on a scholarship and presumably poor. He winds up making friends with Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), one of the most popular and beloved people at school. After spending some time together, Oliver is invited to summer at Felix's family estate, Saltburn (what a perfect name!). Oliver meets Felix's parents, Lady Elsbeth Catton (Rosamund Pike) and Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), his blonde, flirty sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), and wild-card cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe).

To be sure, there's some subtle manipulation going on, right from the very first instant as Oliver encounters the grimly silent, scowling butler Duncan (Paul Rhys), but Fennell keeps it on the down-low as to just who is manipulating whom. There's also the question, raised during a some-time-later prologue, of what feelings Oliver has for Felix. Are they friends? Is their relationship romantic? Sexual? One-sided? Certainly there are some — ahem — unusual expressions of lust that are better seen than described.

Aside from this tricky balancing act, expressing roiling emotions under cool facades, Fennell turns in a movie that looks spectacular. She uses the massive estate, complete with a hedge maze, to glorious effect, creating tension by squishing the vast spaces into a narrow Academy aspect ratio (1:1.33). Everything is beautiful, but thorny, or perhaps a bit fetid at the root. She's also skilled at visual motifs, from the various decorating in the house, to the costumes worn at a lavish birthday party.

On the whole, I don't think Saltburn is quite as accomplished as Promising Young Woman, as Fennell needlessly spills a bit too much information in a prologue, and then in a greatest-hits montage toward the finale. The earlier film ended with a deadly snap, and this one sort of trails off, although it does have a tour-de-force closing scene that will stick in the memory for some time. As a bonus, Promising Young Woman star Carey Mulligan returns in a small but potent role as an overly-made-up sad sack, Pamela, who hangs out at the mansion for a time, and provides an early look at the fates of these poor, horrible characters.