Saltburn

 Saltburn (2023)

Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike

Direction by Emerald Fennell

Language: English

I can credit Jacob Elordi’s sultry good looks to me finding out about this movie. I saw interviews of him talking about this movie on TikTok, and it came onto my radar. Then, a few of my friends talked to me about the movie, and his, as one of my friends put it, ‘delicious face and body’. Then I started hearing odd words being put together: bath tubs, graves, and murders. And then I realized that it was high time to watch this. 

Where do I start? This movie DEFINITELY challenged all my preconceptions. I figured that any Elordi movie would inevitably end up being some sort of rom-com. I was MORE than wrong. 

Firstly, the movie was shot beautifully. I do wish I was able to watch this in my country’s theaters, but they don’t publicly show movies with suggestive plots. The use of angles was incredible, and as such I found the movie incredibly intimate and engaging to watch. Knowing how to use angles, I think, is the mark of any movie I like. Secondly, the use of lighting and colour was frankly outstanding. It’s not very often where I see scenes in movies where the lighting becomes abruptly coloured. But this movie did it, and did it well. The lunch scene where the curtains were closed added such a sense of urgency and tension that I was taken aback. 

On this idea of urgency and tension, I was relieved that this movie didn’t fall down the trap of becoming melodramatic. It stayed within the boundaries of being psychological - no event seemed too extreme or too cliched. 

Now, for the acting. I was disappointed that Elordi didn’t have a more multifaceted character. His portrayal of ‘the nice guy’ always joking around, was done very well, but lacked the contrast that everyone knows he has. The only element of contrast I saw was towards the end of his character’s role in the movie, and so it was unfortunate that his story got cut short. The same goes for Rosamund Pike. Her final scene on stage gave me chills - she reminded me very strongly of Lady Macbeth, for some odd reason. I do think her role could have been fleshed out a little more, but given that the plot was focused on Keoghan’s character, Ollie, I can understand the choices of the writers. 

Now for Keoghan. I genuinely do not know how to feel about his performance. His acting in the pivotal, climactic scenes was beyond excellent: those were the points where he definitely showed the most versatility and skill. Otherwise, I do think he should have been given the opportunity to show more subtle contrasts in his character even in the less significant scenes. So maybe I don’t feel that Keoghan underperformed, but rather that there could have been more in his script. 

And now for those controversial scenes that have been making the rounds on social media. I thought the bath tub scene was more than necessary for Oliver’s character development. It really was the first time where an audience could very obviously see the extent of the character’s obsession. I thought it was done brilliantly by Keoghan: I was absolutely stunned (but in the best possible way) when I saw it. The grave scene too, whilst slightly jarring, was a cinematic masterpiece - the movie would have greatly lost out if it wasn’t included.

I leave you with two words as I conclude this review. 

Watch this.