A pretty film full of pretty people, pretty scenery, and pretty underwhelming – not spoiler-free
I confess this title is a little too judgemental – I did enjoy this film to an extent, and it was particularly aided by the stellar performances of Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton, Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick and the rest of the cast, alongside particularly interesting directing on the part of Emerald Fennell. Thus, I must also praise the cinematography – it does make the building that is Saltburn seem ethereal and haunting in a way you would expect from a gothic movie, comparable to Crimson Peak or Francis Coppola’s vision of Dracula’s Castle. Whilst fulfilling this quality, the cinematography also manages to make the setting seem slightly flat and fade into the background, particularly in scenes heavy with the Cattons’, so that it seems that the family does not appreciate or take for granted the grandeur of the estate. It creates the idea therefore that the Cattons’ are in a way undeserving of this splendour, that their existence within the estate drains it of its natural beauty, and so it seems to set up in some capacity that it is Oliver’s role to vindicate this theme and therefore – for the first half of the film – you believe that this story might be a twisted take on the ‘Eat the Rich’ sentiment. However, that is not the point this movie wants to prove, as we find out as the plot develops.
In the first act of the film, Oliver tells Felix that he comes from a poor background with a drug-addict mother, and a father whom Oliver confides dies during his time attending Oxford with Felix. Felix, as an individual who is set up to have a saviour complex emboldened by his upper-class status, invites Oliver back to Saltburn for the Summer to lift his spirits. Although well-intentioned, this action by Felix emphasises the unspoken height at which he thinks of himself in comparison to Oliver. However, this is not exactly a reason to dislike Felix, as although backed by blissful class status, he hasn’t done anything wrong. I watched the film with the knowledge that Oliver was intending to infiltrate Saltburn, although I was hoping within the first act I would get a reason why Oliver cares so much, at least stated in some form by Oliver. This did not happen, so I was left under the impression that upon arrival to Oliver, we’d receive those reasons by experiencing the Cattons.
The Cattons are the typical depiction of upper-class English, with Rosamund Pike’s character Elspeth’s obsessions with surface-level beauty, and the rest of the immediate family’s disillusion with class struggle. Immediately, as Oliver enters, there is a sense of pity on him – a perfect ploy for him to take advantage of and weave his way into their lives. Yet, we still don’t have a motivation for him to want to target Saltburn and the Cattons, aside from the assumed angle that Oliver was poor and was aiming to bring down the rich because of how frivolous and unappreciative they were of their work. Yet, with Oliver’s obsession with Felix – you believe that his motivations are more personal, and you believe that it will lead to a big twist that reveals something that the Cattons perhaps did to Oliver’s family in the past. For example, removing his parents from a job or forcing them out of their property – which would make it like a Wuthering Heights tale of revenge.
Within the second act, we find information that dismantles this understanding of Oliver’s intentions. As Felix ambushes Oliver on the day of his birthday party being held by the Cattons, he reveals in the car that he answered a phone call from Oliver’s mum (this event happened off-screen) and is taking Oliver to visit her out of his ‘goodwill’. This is, once again, his saviour complex preventing him from being able to gauge what someone like Oliver’s proclaims to be, would likely want to do in this situation. But this angle is harmed when we find out by the end of this excruciatingly cringy scene (which was the point, I know), that Oliver was upper middle class, with a mother who is not a drug addict and a father who is definitely alive. Both love him very much it seems, much to Felix’s confusion. Perhaps this scene could be viewed as a ‘gotcha’ to Felix’s saviour complex, but instead it leaves me quite confused.
If Oliver is rich, why on earth would he be the right person to tell and eat the rich plotline? This twist completely changes the angle of the film into an allegory that the upper middle class are trying to leech into the upper class. This is the kind of take you would expect to find in an Edwardian noble’s tearoom – not a 2000s take on a Gothic. With the fates each of these characters meet in the third act, you can’t help but feel sorry for them, since – although they were annoying and shallow at best – they never actually explicitly did anything wrong to Oliver. At least, nothing that is shown to us. In fact, I can’t quite rightly understand why Oliver chooses to poison Felix when he does, because although Felix is disappointed with him for lying, he hasn’t figured out Oliver’s plan to infiltrate and take control of the estate. If the scene where he visited Oliver’s home had revealed that Oliver was feared by his parents, and through Felix’s questioning, he is reminded of an instance he wronged Oliver, then that would have at least given us an inkling as to why Oliver chooses to do the thing he does.
We learn through Oliver’s actions throughout the whole film that something is untoward about his character – but even if a character is thinking without rational thought – he still needs a clear motivation. Something personal connected him to why targeted Saltburn – they aren’t the only upper-class family in Oxford, after all. And if he is a tour de force like the movie would have us believe after Venetia’s monologue in the third act, why was there no symbolism or foreshadowing for this in the previous acts?
Overall, this movie seemed like it had all the right plot points for a gothic film, and all the right cinematography in some respects, but upon reflection it seems to have an issue of prioritising aesthetics over the pinnacles of plot. So, although there were disturbing scenes, they were brought down by a lack of strong character motivation on Oliver’s side. I believe the point of this film was to ‘eat the rich’, but I don’t think the writers were willing to tackle it in a way that effectively moves the plotline.