REVIEW: Excessive depravity doesn’t salvage ‘Saltburn’

“Saltburn” is an appropriate title for this flick, because things get really salty, and then some.

Set in 2006, “Saltburn” opens at Oxford University where young student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is just beginning to attend on a scholarship. He initially struggles to fit in among many wealthier peers, but manages to eventually befriend another student, Felix (Jacob Elordi).

After forming a friendship, Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at his family’s mansion, titled Saltburn. There, Oliver experiences parties, sex, drugs and all of the other things available to the rich. However, the setting becomes tense as Oliver begins showing darker tendencies.

Emerald Fennell, who helmed “Promising Young Woman” a few years ago returns with another film that once again takes aim at a societal subject. But while that film felt like it was precise in firing at rape culture and toxic masculinity, her latest picture comes across as much more scatter shot in trying to take down upper class extravagance.

Fennell just throws so damn much at the screen in this film. It’s clear that the movie is attempting to take on class divisions, the vapidness of elites and personal desires, but it does so in such an over-the-top way. Everything is so excessive, it would be like if “Triangle of Sadness” tried to stretch its infamous ship scene over the entire runtime.

At the end of the day, “Saltburn” ends up being mostly shock value with very little substance. The movie is very rarely a gripping experience, and it’s not helped by the fact that the viewer has to spend the movie with a bunch of unlikable characters who aren’t even the type you love to hate. It’s especially true with the film’s underwhelming central figure.

Barry Keoghan is clearly talented, showing off his abilities with his award caliber work in last year’s “Banshees of Inisherin,” and he’s certainly pulling his weight here. He’s strong on screen, no doubt, but the material works against him.

Oliver has some interesting moments, but is never truly engaging. He meanders through the film, often aloof or acting shady, but rarely becomes a truly fascinating character. There’s also the issue that the ending is so absurd that it sinks the character’s entire arc. In fact, the picture’s finale damages the movie as a whole.

It’s unfortunate because the strong cast of “Saltburn” extends beyond Keoghan, too, with Rosamund Pike and Richard Grant being reliable performers who put in solid work here. Elrodi, who also recently played Elvis in “Priscilla” recently, is also quite good on screen.

Fennell is also a strong director visually, able to bring a lot of style to a film and create memorable imagery. Her and the rest of the film crew made a film here that has some merit in that regard.

“Saltburn” is a film that does look good, boasts a cast of good actors and offers some legitimately interesting scenes, but overall is much lesser film when compared to other recent pictures that go after the rich, especially with what happens in the final act. 2 out of 5.