Scouser student Oliver (Barry Keoghan, who is not English but Irish) arrives at Oxford University where he sticks out like a sore thumb ("he's a scholarship boy and buys his clothes from Oxfam" sniffs one plummy-voiced deb). Despite this he attracts the attention of Home Counties aristocrat Felix (Jacob Elordi, who is not English but Australian/Spanish) who takes him to his family's country pile - the titular stately home - where Oliver meets Felix's family of stereotypical English aristos: vague mother, mad father, nymphomanic sister, American cousin (Archie Madekwe, who is not American but English/Nigerian/Swiss). At first even more out-of-place than he was at Oxford, Oliver quickly becomes used to life at Saltburn. But for how long will he be welcome there?
Watching this at the 2023 London Film Festival, I found it reminded me of various other films: the obvious one is 'The Talented Mr Ripley' (1999), but there are also aspects of 'Wild Things' (1998) and 'The Riot Club' (2014). Despite this, 'Saltburn' does stand on its own two feet, principally because Oliver's motives are ambiguous and, unlike 'Ripley', there is a vein of comedy throughout (sometimes unintentionally: a scene of Oliver drinking bathwater into which Felix has just ejaculated had the audience falling about, but I am not sure that was the intention of writer/director/producer Emerald Fennell!) I also appreciated that Fennell avoids the reverse-discrimination trap of making rich folk exclusively nasty but instead shows that - hey! - aristocrats have feelings too! Felix, especially, is sympathetically-drawn. If I have any criticism it is that at over two hours the film is over-long - after the birthday party sequence it seems the film has reached a natural conclusion, although there is, it turns out, good reason for it to carry on... perhaps a few of the mid-way scenes could have been cut.
The supporting players are gifted with enjoyable parts - standouts are Carey Mulligan as a drug-addled socialite and Paul Rhys (who, thirty years ago, would have been a natural to play Oliver) as a straight-laced butler. Those actors essaying accents not their own do a good job - Elordi's rich-boy drawl, in particular, is convincing. And as for leading man Keoghan - the lengthy sequence during which he dances nude to 'Murder on the Dance Floor' is likely to be one of the most-discussed scenes of the film.
Watching this at the 2023 London Film Festival, I found it reminded me of various other films: the obvious one is 'The Talented Mr Ripley' (1999), but there are also aspects of 'Wild Things' (1998) and 'The Riot Club' (2014). Despite this, 'Saltburn' does stand on its own two feet, principally because Oliver's motives are ambiguous and, unlike 'Ripley', there is a vein of comedy throughout (sometimes unintentionally: a scene of Oliver drinking bathwater into which Felix has just ejaculated had the audience falling about, but I am not sure that was the intention of writer/director/producer Emerald Fennell!) I also appreciated that Fennell avoids the reverse-discrimination trap of making rich folk exclusively nasty but instead shows that - hey! - aristocrats have feelings too! Felix, especially, is sympathetically-drawn. If I have any criticism it is that at over two hours the film is over-long - after the birthday party sequence it seems the film has reached a natural conclusion, although there is, it turns out, good reason for it to carry on... perhaps a few of the mid-way scenes could have been cut.
The supporting players are gifted with enjoyable parts - standouts are Carey Mulligan as a drug-addled socialite and Paul Rhys (who, thirty years ago, would have been a natural to play Oliver) as a straight-laced butler. Those actors essaying accents not their own do a good job - Elordi's rich-boy drawl, in particular, is convincing. And as for leading man Keoghan - the lengthy sequence during which he dances nude to 'Murder on the Dance Floor' is likely to be one of the most-discussed scenes of the film.