"Saltburn"

 ☆☆☆☆ 

Some very terrible people do some very terrible things in Saltburn, and while it may feel like at this particular moment in time we don't much need another movie about horrible people who live morally reprehensible lives, somehow Saltburn winds up delightfully, perversely enjoyable.

That said, understand that if you see Saltburn, you may find yourself gasping at some of the things that are done. The night I saw the movie with a packed audience—who seemed to be unaware that Saltburn has been getting mixed reviews and marginal audience scores—the gasps were audible and the uncomfortable laughter was loud and appreciative. There are things in Saltburn you might wish you hadn't seen, yet the film as a whole is so assured, twisty and well-executed that you never once want to turn away.

Take, for instance (and, don't worry, there shall be no spoilers) that midnight walk through the magnificent grounds of Saltburn, an impossibly grand, imposing and often cold estate in the English countryside. Or the scene in the graveyard. Or the scene in the bathtub. Any of the scenes in the bathtub, come to think of it, and there are a few. Or the discomfiting scenes featuring Poor Dear Pamela, a hilariously unaware bore of a person played with sniveling perfection by Carey Mulligan. These aren't scenes you have seen in movies before. You'll probably never see them in movies again, either.

But that's the perverse beauty of writer-director Emerald Fennell's contemporary gothic melodrama, in which Mulligan is just part of an ensemble cast that seems to have no inhibitions at all. Barry Keoghan, frequently an unsettling presence in film, and Jacob Elordi, frequently a tall and sexy presence on TV, lead that cast, and they excel at leaning into what we think we know about them. One of the most intriguing aspects of Saltburn is how aware it is that we will immediately make assumptions about its characters, its setting, its motives, and then has fun making us wonder if we were right or wrong all along.

Keoghan and Elordi are undeniably at the center of the film, but they are not the only characters or actors of consequence. Saltburn also brings us Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and two less familiar but equally impressive performers in pivotal roles, Archie Madekwe and Alison Oliver, all of whom create such specific fully realized characters that involve us deeply in their unsettling, private dramas. So deeply, in fact, that like a master magician we don't even notice how easily we've been misled.

But to say anything more would be unfair and unwise—except that this is not a film for everyone, nor is it one that likely stands up to much scrutiny. It will shock and offend the easily shocked and offended, and it will almost certainly fall apart if picked over too much by the kind of moviegoer inclined to pick. There seems little deeper in its agenda than to entertain and provoke, two things it does spectacularly well.

Viewed Dec. 9, 2023 — AMC Universal City

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