Saltburn Review: Talented Mr Ripley On Nightmare Fuel

Saltburn (Emerald Fennell)-Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut was a dark comedy that took on rape culture in the form of a scorned woman who goes out at night pretending to be drunk and then teaching creeps a lesson in consent with a Batman-like recklessness. Her sophomore effort here is a Rules of the Game/Gosford Park send-up in the form of a poor man (Oliver, Barry Keoghan) at a rich man’s college who gets invited to stay with his upper class friend (Felix, Jacob Elordi) for an unspecified amount of time.

The film has no lacking of elevated mood and much of the direction initially frames Keoghan as a social climber but one who’s pushed to do so under fair grounds. He’s bullied by people like Felix’s catty cousin (Archie Madekwe) and it appears he’ll never fit in.

At least, that’s how things appear initially. As Oliver stays longer with Felix’s family (Allison Rich, Rosamund Pike, and Richard Grant play the other family members with varying levels of aloofness), the film goes from dark comedy to dark film with satirical elements to downright disturbing.

Like Matt Damon’s in The Talented Mr Ripley, Oliver is driven by both homoerotic obsession and class envy. The line between these dueling drives isn’t clear which is what I imagine Fennell thinks makes the film avant-garde.

It’s undoubtedly a well-made film technically, but the feeling of a film being ten times darker than advertised leaves one feeling a little cheated.