Saltburn ** (2023, Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe, Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Alison Oliver) – Classic Movie Review 12,769

Saltburn (Jacob Elordi).

The 2023 black comedy drama film Saltburn is plenty salty but it could give you heartburn.

Barry Keoghan throws himself body and soul into the 2023 black comedy drama film Saltburn as a poor Oxford University student attracted to, fixated on and obsessed with a charming rich boy (Jacob Elordi) in his college, who invites him to spend the summer at his eccentric family’s grand estate in England in 2006.

Saltburn (Barry Keoghan).

Writer/ producer/ director Emerald Fennell is all out to shock and titillate as her way to entertain and amuse. Subtlety isn’t Saltburn’s strong suit, nor originality, with its echoes of Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr Ripley, Something for Everyone, Theorem, and even Kind Hearts and Coronets. Admittedly, these are faint, distant echoes of far better movies.

Saltburn is frivolous and salacious by design, but it turns out to be a bit disagreeable and tiresome. Fennell struggles to keep control of the plot, pace and characters. The film’s dramatic climaxes are fumbled, and the ending is rushed and unsatisfactory. The production is luxurious but wildly overblown, and somehow Fennell doesn’t make the best use of it. As a psychological thriller, if that was intended, it just doesn’t get started. But some of the dialogue and developments are amusing, the shock moments are fairly shocking, and the actors give it their best shot.

Saltburn (Rosamund Pike).

Fighting miscasting and a devil of a role, Irish actor Keoghan (born 18 October 1992 so he’s way too old to be an Oxford scholarship student and he just looks wrong for the role) is brave and commendable, but Rosamund Pike and Richard E Grant give the best performances in showy support roles as the crazy parents, though they do have most of the film’s best lines.

Jacob Elordi is just a cypher, never able to suggest the magnetism of his character, and somehow Archie Madekwe as Felix’s cousin Farleigh Start, Carey Mulligan as Elspeth’s friend Poor Dear Pamela, Paul Rhys as Saltburn’s butler Duncan, and Ewan Mitchell as Oliver’s college mate Michael Gavey are all eventually wasted, thanks to being handed caricatures or stereotypes to play rather than actual unique characters that leap off the screen. Arguably, at 131 minutes, it’s around a quarter of an hour too long. Sharper editing and pruning would help this wild flower.

Patricia Highsmith has a brilliant understanding of Guy and Bruno in Strangers on a Train, and Tom and Dickie in The Talented Mr Ripley. But Emerald Fennell knows nothing of Oliver and Felix, except the most superficial. One’s envious, the other’s handsome, and that’s it.

Saltburn premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023, and was released in the UK and US on 17 November 2023. Its streaming release by Amazon Prime Video started on 23 December.

The cast are Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick, Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton, Rosamund Pike as Felix’s mother Lady Elspeth Catton, Richard E Grant as Felix’s father Sir James Catton, Alison Oliver as Felix’s sister Venetia Catton, Archie Madekwe as Felix’s cousin Farleigh Start, Carey Mulligan as Elspeth’s friend Poor Dear Pamela, Paul Rhys as Saltburn’s butler Duncan, Ewan Mitchell as Oliver’s college mate Michael Gavey, Sadie Soverall as Annabel, Millie Kent as India, Reece Shearsmith as Professor Ware, Dorothy Atkinson as Oliver’s mother Paula Quick, Shaun Dooley as Oliver’s father Jeff Quick, and Lolly Adefope as Lady Daphn.

Country: United States, United Kingdom

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Comedy

Release: Dec 22, 2023

Director: Emerald Fennell

Production: LuckyChap Entertainment, MRC Film, Lie Still.

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe, Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Alison Oliver.

It received two nominations at the 81st Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor (Keoghan) and Best Supporting Actress (Pike).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,769

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com