I Watch Films: Saltburn

 

Saltburn

Oliver Quick is a student at Oxford University in 2006. Initially out of place due to not being upper class he befriends Felix Catton, though he has a tense relationship with Felix’s cousin Farleigh. He tells Felix his father has died, his mother is an addict. Felix invites him to the family home Saltburn for the summer.

It’s a big posh country house filled with old family reminders, also Felix’s family, his father Sir James, his mother Lady Elspeth, his sister Venetia, also Farleigh, and Pamela, a friend of Elspeth with various problems who has outstayed her welcome. It’s a bit weird in an easy upper class way. Oliver, obsessed with Felix, shares a bathroom, has sex with Venetia, then denies it to Felix after Farleigh sees them. Later he both threatens and flirts with Farleigh, after which Farleigh is barred from the house for trying to sell valuables.

As the summer comes to an end they decide to throw a birthday party for Oliver. Felix surprises him by taking him on a visit to his mother; it’s revealed his father is actually alive, they don’t have mental illness or substance abuse problems, and Oliver grew up in a boring middle class suburb. Felix covers for Oliver but insists he leave after the party.

After the party Felix is found dead in the centre of the hedge maze. Oliver hints that Farleigh supplied drugs and this is what killed him and Farleigh is barred again, permanently. Elpseth insists Oliver stay on, finding him a comfort. Venetia accuses him of destroying the family and turns him away when he tries to seduce her again. She’s then discovered having killed herself in the bathtub. Sir James decides Oliver is bad for Elspeth moving on and bribes him to leave.

In 2022 Oliver reads of Sir James’s death, runs into Elspeth and makes himself indispensable to her. The framing story is revealed, the present Oliver narrating what happened, and now offering another interpretation of the events. This film is a comedy about class, and a dark thriller, and also wants to be saying something about lies and truth and manipulation. About what immensely wealthy and influential people get up to and what that means. And about strange obsessions. Unfortunately trying to do all that at once makes it fall apart, I can’t quite laugh at the tragedy or admire the audacity.

Watch This: Dark comedy thriller about upper class England
Don’t Watch This: A lot of people hang about a country house doing weird things