‘Saltburn’ Review: Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi Tussle in Ruling Class Satire

British aristocracy: They're just like us! Wait, no, the new satire Saltburn shows this is (hopefully) not the case, and the desire to worm one's way into the inner sanctum of wealth, power and privilege can only rot the soul. This isn't a particularly new or insightful movie, but it is sufficiently entertaining when its outlandishness goes for broke.

The story begins at Oxford, where Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) shows up eager to learn and advance himself in society. He's a "scholarship kid," which means he has the brains but not the blood. He's swift to notice Felix (Jacob Elordi — who wouldn't notice him?) as a center of social gravity. A chance encounter puts Oliver on Felix's radar, and since the rest of his circle is quick to turn up their noses, Felix takes "Ollie" under his wing.

After one minor disagreement, Oliver finds himself left out of a visit to the campus pub, but when Felix learns Oliver's father has died, he reaches out again. With graduation looming and Oliver hesitant to return to his alcoholic mother, Felix invites him to his estate, Saltburn, and to stay as long as he wishes.

Here's the deal: Any house that has a name is probably going to be an unusual place to visit, but Oliver soon figures out how he can fit in. He ingratiates himself to Felix's mother and father, Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant, who both take the rote trope of the clueless patrician and reanimate it. (Somewhere writer-director Emerald Fennell has reels of outtakes and ad-libs from these two and, for the good of all mankind, she must be pressured into releasing it.) An American cousin (Archie Madekwe) and a previous hanger-on (Carey Mulligan) look askance at the newcomer, but Felix's younger sister (Alison Oliver) finds she's got eyes for him.

Oliver's focus, though, is solely on Felix. But does he love him? Lust for him? Or ... want to replace him?

Saltburn owes an awful lot to The Talented Mr. Ripley (and its French precursor Purple Noon) as well as Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. (Felix even mentions that Waugh based some of his stories on the family.) Fennell's screenplay, however, lacks the clever contours of those previous works, but Fennell, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for her 2020 film Promising Young Woman, have an ace up her sleeve as a director. She goes all-in on the "Wait, what? Ewww!!" moments of sexual deviance and shoots the hell out of the one percenter extravagance, which works in direct opposition to its allergy to human connection and immutable rejection of emotion.

Pros:

Cons:

The final third of the movie really whoops it up with the "Wow, this is nuts!" factor, and it's hard not to chuckle along. But the story eventually breaks all known connection to reality. What's worse, the twists and turns are all somehow extremely obvious. So not only is it far-fetched, it's still predictable, which is a ad mix. There's also an ironic moment when Oliver confronts Archie Madekwe's character in front of their poetry tutor for caring only about form but not content. Whether this is a moment of self-criticism or just a coincidence is up for discussion.

The central performances and the look of the picture, however, are first rate, and Saltburn is an enjoyable film if you don't scrutinize anything too much. I highly recommend it for the next time you are on a plane — especially if you are eyeing first class while hurting your back scrunched in economy — just hope no one can see your screen during the nasty parts. 6.7/10

In theaters: Nov. 17

Who is in it: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Carey Mulligan

Who is behind it: Emerald Fennell (writer-director), Margot Robbie (co-producer)

For fans of: Watching rich, beautiful people do extravagant things

Avoid if: You can anticipate twists too easily, or are wont to search for deeper meaning