Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

Class warfare is an old topic for film, which makes any attempt at a shocking take on the premise a lofty endeavor. Writer/director Emerald Fennell isn’t a bad bet to pull it off, though, as she won an Oscar for her shocking turn of the tables in Promising Young Woman. Oddly, she also comes from the upper class most of us want to see taken down, so any portrayal she makes of the illustrious life of Britain’s elite, one would assume, is doused in realism.

Turns out, realism isn’t the most appealing thing in these stories. Saltburn is a deeply believable movie. So deeply, in fact, that it never becomes shocking.

The film follows Oliver (Barry Keoghan), an awkward Oxford student who can’t seem to find his place. He’s there on scholarship, something the students funneled from old money families don’t rely on, and a circumstance that makes him a pariah amongst his classmates. His fate turns when he stumbles upon Felix (Jacob Elordi) with a broken bike. Felix is a darling of the English effete; tall, handsome, ungodly rich. The kind of young man you either want to sleep with, be, or both. What Oliver wants to do, from those options, is the mystery of Saltburn. Nothing else is a surprise.

Felix, of course, takes a shine to Oliver and invites him to stay at his titular family home. It’s a massive estate, decorated with a smattering of royal heirlooms, and a place where Oliver is entirely out of place. A trap is set. Oliver doesn’t understand Felix’s family. Felix’s family doesn’t understand Oliver. And one of them has always, always had the upper hand.

The issue with Saltburn is that the audience will only accept one side’s victory. We know how these things turn out in real life, but in fantasy, where movies reside, the rules are different. The journey, then, must be the fun, and that’s where Saltburn is lacking. 

Fennell’s depiction of the British elite is entirely banal, a take that would be interesting if it wasn’t wrapped in a story that depends on grandeur. Felix goes to pubs. He must show up to class. His family watches TV and movies and makes mindless chitchat. Felix is a god, yes, but his world is that of men. One wonders why Oliver idolizes him. Sure, he has friends and wealth, but wouldn’t such a smart kid see past those surface advantages? The world has handed Felix an easy life. It has not handed him, as we see over and again, a happy one.

That’s the distinction most successful films that Saltburn pulls from hinge on, most notably The Talented Mr. Ripley. The twist is not who wins; it’s the dim future they gain. And it’s this point that Fennell’s Saltburn misses. A hollow victory is won, but that point isn’t hammered home. Instead, to make this twist on the story work, the elite’s desirability can’t be questioned too much. Capturing their delights is the only area where Fennell succeeds, delivering all the immaculate outfits and swoon-worthy production design that draws audiences to tales of the elite. It all looks so elegant, and it’s pleasurable to spend time wallowing in the excess.

Keoghan, Elordi, and the rest of the impressive cast, which also includes Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and Carey Mulligan, give what they can to the material, but they’re hampered by their small roles. No one is Saltburn is complicated, and they’re mostly left to hit the same notes over and over in a too-long film. Elordi is charming and alluring. Pike and Grant are funnily sheltered. Keoghan is taking everything in, playing the game no one else realizes is being played, an expanded take on his role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer that is much better as a side than the main dish.

The good bits of Saltburn almost keep it afloat, and perhaps in a less bloated production they would’ve been enough. There’s some intrigue and everything is beautiful to look at, but this is a hollow take on the genre, one that misunderstands why these films are so enjoyable. Surface pleasure is a must, but movies about class warfare should also be biting and smart. The genre is a treatise on the way the world works and catharsis for its ravages. The best understand that it’s the system that must burn, not just the ones holding the power. Saltburn is neither biting nor smart, and its denouement lacks the mixture of joy, rage, and hopelessness many feel while stuck in the system’s fist. And that is a letdown.

Release: Available now in theaters
Director: Emerald Fennell
Writers: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Carey Mulligan