Title: Saltburn
Rating: 5 Stars
Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is a new student at Oxford. A scholarship student, he is almost immediately ostracized by his better dressed, better groomed, and much richer classmates. It appears that he's going to be stuck hanging out with his fellow outcasts until he does a favor one day for Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Impossibly tall, handsome, charismatic, and rich, Felix moves through the Oxford world like royalty.
From this small favor, Felix takes pity upon Oliver and takes him under his wing. His sympathies increase once he hears about Oliver's dismal home life of abuse and addiction. On break, when Felix discovers that Oliver is not going home and, in fact, never plans to ever return to his home, Felix invites Oliver to his home, a massive estate named Saltburn.
When he arrives, Oliver is overwhelmed by the grandeur of Saltburn. Still horribly awkward, he does everything in his power to ingratiate himself with Felix's parents and sister. Things go well until Felix inadvertently discovers that Oliver has not been honest with him.
Shocked at his deceit, Felix seeks to end Oliver's friendship. Oliver, devastated, having once tasted such luxury, is determined not to go back to his previous life. It's fair to say that, from that point on, the Catton family, previously immune to pain and suffering due to their wealth, power, and prestige, begin to suffer calamitous losses.
What will be Oliver's fate?
Since it's a fairly new film, I'm trying very hard not to include too many spoilers, although from the description above and some of the comments below, I'm guessing that the basic plot points of the film can be deduced.
Keoghan does great work as Oliver. He seems to have cornered the market on messed up young men. He played the troubled Dominic in The Banshees of Inisherin and the young man that apparently places a curse on the doctor's family in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In the beginning of the film, he's awkward and lost. As the film unfolds, you see the real Oliver behind the mask.
Although the director has apparently denied a connection, to me the most obvious inspiration is The Talented Mr Ripley. Like Tom Ripley, Oliver is an at best middle class striver who has his nose figuratively pressed against the window peeping in on the extremely wealthy. Also like Ripley, once he manages to sneak his way into the life of privilege, he will take any measure to keep his place.
Also like the Ripley story, the wealthy elite are clueless. Both Oliver and Ripley are so far below them in social station that the wealthy can't even imagine being threatened by him. Felix's sister directly says to Oliver that he is nothing more than a moth circling the light of their wealth and prestige. Their arrogant ignorance will lead them to their doom.
One difference is that, in the Ripley story, the wealthy parents at least have a glimmer of intelligence to them. This could be because they are nouveau riche (the father built a shipbuilding company, IIRC), so they haven't lost all of their street smarts. In Saltburn, it's clear that the Catton family goes back generations. The parents (both very well played by Rosamund Pike and Richard E Grant) are irremediably feckless. They live in a house full of priceless works of art like paintings by Rubens and they spend their nights watching horror movies, singing Karaoke, and throwing huge parties. They never see Oliver coming and they never stand a chance.
Interestingly, one of the wealthy elite does see through Oliver. That is Felix's cousin Farleigh (once again, well acted by Archie Madekwe). He's the son of Felix's father's sister. She has apparently fallen on hard times and Farleigh has to rely upon the generosity of Felix's father. Not only that, but he is half Black. Although he is unquestionably a member of the elite, those two facts put his status always in question. When Felix, the first born son of a first born son, condescends to explain to Farleigh that he needs to pull himself up by his bootstraps and make his own way in life, you see Farleigh's barely suppressed rage.
Given his shaky status, it is only natural that he should see Oliver's naked striving that the firmly ensconced in wealth are blind to. Oliver, seeing a fellow striver in Farleigh, recognizes him as an enemy.
One final comparison to The Talented Mr Ripley is the homoerotic charge between the two young men at the heart of both. Understated in Ripley, it is much more overt in Saltburn. Oliver wishes to possess everything of Felix.
This is a well acted, darkly comedic film about wealth and class. The shallow, sterile, obliviousness of the generationally wealthy moneyed elite will leave you rooting for the anti-hero.
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