Saltburn ★★★★
LIKE the garden maze depicted in her mesmerising Saltburn, director Emerald Fennell takes the viewer down many paths.
Just as you begin to reach a potential understanding of the central character, you find yourself at another mental dead end and need to backtrack and re-set.
But this is not a frustrating journey; it’s a wonderfully engaging one that will keep your emotions unbalanced and mind guessing until the exhilarating final act.
Like she did with Carey Mulligan’s complex avenger in her terrific debut feature Promising Young Woman, Fennell creates another divisive character that captures our imagination and emotions in ways they shouldn’t normally be able to do.
Barry Keoghan gives possibly his best performance as Oliver Quick, a brilliant but shy and socially awkward young student attending Oxford University.
We know something changes in Oliver’s character and fortunes because we see glimpses of him in the future, reflecting to camera on his relationship with a fellow student, the wildly popular, charming and handsome Felix Catton, played very well by Australian Jacob Elordi.
After a chance encounter when Oliver loans Felix a bicycle, the bond between the unlikely pair slowly grows into something private and special to both, much to the annoyance of others within Felix’s social orbit.
A key moment arrives when Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family estate, Saltburn, over the summer break, leading to a series of events that will irrevocably change the lives of Oliver and the entire Catton family.
Like Promising Young Woman, Saltburn is part jet black comedy and part disturbing psychological thriller that has the ability to entertain and shock in equal measure.
Koeghan, last seen in the wonderful Banshees of Inisherin, is not yet a household name, but eventually he will be. Maybe not because of Saltburn, which is odd enough to be inaccessible for some, but it’s coming; perhaps in an expanded role as The Joker if Matt Reeves gets to make another Batman film.
Everyone in the Saltburn cast is very good, but the other stand-out performance is provided by Rosamund Pike as Felix’s mother Lady Elsbeth Catton who feigns sympathy and friendship while spitting venom at those around her who dare to be either ugly, boring or sport a beard.
I can’t wait to watch Saltburn again to revel in its craziness and figure out how Fennell and Keoghan successful pull off such a hire-wire act.