“Saltburn”: The Trend of Glamorizing Immorality

The director of Promising Young Woman introduces us to the eccentricities of the Catton family, and the doubtful intentions of their summer guest.

Summary

Emerald Fennell’s most recent film tells the story of Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) who arrives at Oxford University in the mid-2000s. Awkward and lonely, the young man finds it difficult to fit in.

That changes when he gets the chance to befriend the aristocrat Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who takes Oliver under his wing, opening the door to the magnificence of Saltburn, his family’s state.

A Promising Start

During the first couple of minutes, I felt genuinely interested in what was happening on screen.

A short flashback moment, when the protagonist tries to define his relationship with Felix, is an early warning, preparing us for a dark, or at least dramatic, turn of events in the future. Going from there, we are taken through Oliver’s struggles to find his place at Oxford, his obsession with befriending the rich and popular boy, and his success in doing so.

Oliver appears to be a very troubled person, with a tragic family life, whose only wish is to belong somewhere. These characteristics end up earning Felix’s sympathy, in spite of the underlying strangeness of his new friend, and he decides to invite Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s country house.

The film does a good job showing the ostentatious life of the Catton family, a group of people as glamorous and charismatic, as they are shallow and malicious. Saltburn’s life is more of a constant performance than an actual family coexistence. After some initial shock, Oliver begins to see how he can use it in his favor.

The acting is excellent. Each one of the characters was made to be intentionally disgusting and depraved, and the actors sold it quite well. You won’t get fond of anyone. Even Felix, who is shown as kind-hearted, is not really likeable.

An Unstable Script

As the story moves forward, the script starts to crumble. Even though the movie never gets boring, when you’re already an hour in, you start to wonder where the director wants to go with all of this. Oliver is making himself a favorite of the rich and making the most of it. So? Why is this story so interesting?

There doesn’t seem to be a point until an hour and a half of the running time, when Felix dies. From then on, all the events that follow seemed rushed, and even the least imaginative person can easily figure out what is going to happen. So when Oliver finally confesses that he is responsible for all the tragedies in the Catton family, and that his objective from the beginning was to get Saltburn for himself, no one is surprised.

Besides, the movie is not as smart as it thinks it is.

We’re shown how Oliver targeted Felix from the very beginning, planned to become his friend, and then turned against all his family. What they never bothered to explain is why. How could Oliver plot to destroy the Cattons in so much detail? At what point did he decide that? Did he know exactly who Felix was and the properties and money his family had when he befriended him?

And if Oliver is really this dark mastermind, why? We know he is manipulative and greedy, but we never find out why. He is evil because the script says so. We learn, for example, that he lied about coming from a broken and abusive home, and that his parents are an adorable middle-class couple who are also being deceived by his son. It would have been way more interesting to know something about that.

My point is that the ending is not as well-rounded as we’re supposed to believe.

Hollywood Being Hollywood

Of course, a modern movie is never complete without our dose of weird sex scenes that are absolutely uncalled-for.

I could perhaps interpret the bathtub scene as a representation of Oliver’s obsession with Felix. Maybe the director wanted to present her protagonist as a psychopath, showing how he uses sex to manipulate people and force them to do as he says. But in all cases, these scenes don’t really take us anywhere.

Through sex, Oliver gets a chance to destroy Farleigh (which he could have done without having any sexual contact with him) and two seconds of Venetia’s attention.

The scene at Felix’s grave is simply abominable. Not only is the concept revolting, but the whole thing is meaningless. It serves no other purpose than to be shocking and show how “artistic” and “edgy” the people behind the movie think they are.

The ending scene is more of the same; they probably thought they were doing something very iconic, but it’s just more nudity. But the music selection is amazing; I give them that.

What Happened To Normal Movies?

I’m currently making myself the time to watch as many of the favorites for the award season as I can, but I’m not having as great a time as I expected.

I miss the old movies. And it’s sad, because I’m not that old myself, but I can remember a time when movies were made by people who wanted to tell us inspiring stories, not their weird fantasies; when the actors’ could deliver some great performances with clothes on, and when good scripts were a normal thing and not a rare exception.

Leaving explicit content aside, the thing that is beginning to worry me the most, is that movies like these are sold like “black comedy”. The same thing happened with Poor Things. What’s “comedic” about these projects? I don’t think they are making fun of or commenting on things that are considered taboo; they are just leaning into them, and trying to glamorize them.

If someone criticizes it, the creative team can always play the card of “you didn’t understand what we meant”. And slowly, but surely, this content is taking over the industry.

I hope this new year provides more wholesome films than the ones 2023 left us.