First things first, this movie was very long, so I don’t quite remember every detail. I can tell you one thing, the people with reactions to Saltburn (saying it was the craziest, most sexually depraved, most shocking thing they have seen) should watch this movie because it warrants such a reaction much more than Saltburn. Let’s get into it.
Complete Summary – spoilers!!
Here is an in-depth synopsis of the film (or at least what I can remember) (spoilers included): We meet a girl named Bella Baxter [Emma Stone], her father figure whom she refers to as “God” [William Dafoe], and his assistant Max [Ramy Youssef]. From the get-go, it is clear that there is something off about Bella Baxter, but one cannot quite be sure what it is. For one, we know she is trapped in the house they live in, and the “God” is some sort of scientist (with insane genius vibes) who cares for her. We also learn quickly that Bella is very childlike in both speech and action (which quickly changes) and extremely interested in learning new things and having new experiences. Quickly, we learn that among the experiences Bella becomes fascinated with, the number one is sexual release (which is evident throughout the film because I swear I saw explicit scenes with Emma Stone at least 50 times). We (and eventually she) find out that the reason Bella is the way she is, a childlike mind inside an adult woman’s body, is because she is exactly that: a child’s mind in an adult’s body. “God’s” science is a messed up sort of Frankensteinian science where he reanimates and combines creatures. Bella used to have a different life until she threw herself, pregnant, off a bridge. She was then found by “God,” and he performed a surgery where he removed her unborn child, took its brain, replaced her’s with it, and then brought her back to life and raised her from “infancy” (even though her body was fully developed).
She ends up taking a lover named Duncan Wedderburn [Mark Ruffalo] and runs away with him, only after becoming engaged to Max (one of her caretakers and assistant to “God”). They run away to Lisbon and have vast amounts of sex, and he shows her many new experiences. Eventually, she grows tired of both him and Lisbon (as she craves new experiences), and they go on a cruise ship to many different places where she meets new people, and learns new feelings, and her hatred for Duncan grows (as his love for her grows). She ends up giving all of his money away, and they are thrown off the boat in Paris, penniless. She takes it upon herself to earn some money and a place to stay and ends up prostituting herself (which she sees as a win-win because she is already on a journey of sexual discovery and she is getting paid for it). When Duncan finds out, he is furious and leaves her, especially after finding out she had the money the whole time that “God” had given her for the trip, which he takes from her before leaving. She ends up going back to the brothel and stays and works there for quite some time until she starts to become bored of sex and almost emotionless after having to have sex with the ugliest and most undesirable of men.
She gets news that “God” is dying of cancer, and goes home to spend time with him before he passes on. When she arrives, she discovers they have created a new version of her, named Felicity, and she is very upset but moves on from it pretty quickly. She reunites with Max and decides once and for all to go through with marrying him. At the ceremony, as they are about to be wed, Duncan bursts in with a strange man we have not yet met. Come to find out, he is her husband from her life before becoming Bella, and he wants her back, and she goes with him. She quickly discovers that life with him is terrible (hence why she tried to commit suicide after being his wife the first time) and that she is no longer the person he wants her to be. He ultimately tries to trap her and force her to have his children, but she outsmarts and shoots him in the foot, and then replaces his brain with a goat’s. She goes back to living with Max, Felicity, and “God’s” unseemly creations (half-and-half animal creations, that is), and they ultimately live happily ever after.
My Thoughts
Resident quirky girl Emma Stone was phenomenal, off the bat. I swear this girl was born to play any offbeat role because she is just amazing at it. Bella Baxter was genuinely interesting to watch, and I was constantly curious about what she was thinking or what she would say or do next. She plays emotion and quirkiness so well in every film, but this is probably my favorite performance of hers by far.
This film was shocking, yet hilarious. I never thought I would see a solo, discount peach scene from “Call Me by Your Name,” yet in this movie, Bella Baxter does indeed masturbate with an apple. It was hilarious. The mix of old-timey dialogue and context mixed with today’s humor and irony was a delight, plain and simple. Mark Ruffalo’s character had me dead the whole time for real. He was so intense yet in the funniest way possible. Bella’s complete naivety was wildly entertaining, but it was all the more interesting because she was truly smarter than probably anyone else on screen at all times, yet she didn’t always show it. She was so raw, so ready to say whatever she was thinking, and she did not hold back.
This film was visually awe-inspiring. It starts in black and white, but once it gets to be in color, it is simply wonderful. Bella’s fashion sense was probably my favorite part. She was dressed for the times, but she was dressed in a way that I would imagine an 8-year-old would dress their doll, which makes complete sense considering her situation. She was almost always in bright, contrasting colors with enormously puffy sleeves, and it was truly a treat to look at. Even the backgrounds were marvelous. Every scene and setting were so interesting to look at, I honestly think I could watch it again and again and notice a new detail every time. It was beautiful.
When I say there is a lot of sex in this movie, I mean it. If you get uncomfortable easily about sexual situations, this is probably not the movie for you. There is both male and female full-frontal nudity and multiple start-to-finish sex scenes, and they are from every angle you can imagine. However, if you do not want to see multiple old, wrinkly men completely nude, again, this is not the movie for you, unfortunately.
The perspective of women as objects in the movie is incredibly interesting. Bella knows she belongs to no one but herself, however, men are constantly trying to trap and own her like she is some animal they can do with as they please. She threw herself off a bridge (before becoming Bella) to escape a man forcing her to have his child, only to be found by another man who forced her back to life (obviously unwillingly) and then trapped her once again. Duncan then treats her as his possession and an object throughout their entire relationship, casting her aside once she is trash to him (after prostituting herself to help him). She then, while living as a prostitute, is lined up with the other women, to be chosen from the bunch by the most undesirable of men to fulfill whatever disgusting sexual desire may fulfill them for a mere 30 franks, of which she only got 20 (which is such a small amount for what she had to do). Then, once she leaves that life, she is trapped once again by the same man from whom she committed suicide to get away as he attempts to genitally mutilate her, as he had concluded that her sexual desire is the root of her hatred for him. It is fascinating yet infuriating what she goes through, yet she still manages to know who she is and fight for herself through it all.
IN CONCLUSION
I genuinely loved this movie. I didn’t fully know what to expect, but I can say that I was beyond pleased. I highly recommend this movie, especially if you are into weird, off-putting, truly f-ed-up movies. This one got me, and it will get you too.