Barry Keoghan is Deceptively Off Kilter is Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn

Filmmaker/actress Emerald Fennell is an anomaly at best.  From being on screen in the hit Netflix series “The Crown” as Camilla Parker-Bowles to creating the runaway hit film “Promising Young Woman” to her latest gothic horror/thriller Saltburn, Fennell proves that her imagination has no boundaries. With her 2020 hit “Promising Young Woman,” audiences witness women being avenged for the horrid behavior men have thrust upon us alongside blatant disrespect for our gender.  Following from the playbook of the old television series “Dark Shadows” in its gothic tone and thriller, edge of your seat spine tingling thematic tones of  “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Saltburn is cinematic ride one shall not forget lightly.

We start in 2006, as a young Oliver (Barry Keoghan) makes his way to Oxford encountering the popular, somewhat entitled Felix (Jacob Elordi).  Milliseconds after their first few encounters, the two forge a friendship where one mistakes for love and the other simply tolerates out of pity.  Oliver wants nothing more than to be accepted and Felix could literally care less as his family’s wealth could literally buy his graduation.  This is where things become uber complicated as we discover the things we want are often the very things we despise.

Through the eyes of Oliver we are introduced to the snobbery that comes along with a Ivy League institution that drips with the loneliness of being an outcast.  But, we learn  in the quest to obtain what is the normalcy of that life, we often  deceive ourselves into thinking having people fear you out of a deep rooted false sense of respect coupled with money is a life worth having and living through.

The production, costumes and makeup design on this project are insane from the angel/devil birthday party, dinner party scenes to the graveyard and bridge moments – the audience is given an insatiable vibe one would long to step right into the screen to inhabit first hand.

The cast of characters are collectively unique  making the film work within the very Hitchcock vibe set forth by Fennell. However, it is the performance of Barry Keoghan that lingers.  His portrayal of Oliver straddles and blurs lines between obviously naive to expertly cunning to diabolically disturbed on a mental level one can only fathom to understand.  His graveyard scene eerily reminds me of  a scene in the 2002 Des McAnuff directed film “Quills” where Geoffrey Rush’s Marquis de Sade performs a rather disturbing autopsy sex scene.  This is tempered with another scene where Oliver celebrates how his plans have paid off and dances throughout the mansion in his birthday suit…literally. This performance makes Keoghan deceptively fearless and a must see of 2023.

Right behind him is the Queen of Kitch – Rosamund Pike as Felix’s out of touch, cold as ice mother.  Pike seems to thrive with these characters who seem cold, but really are just women whose sense of reality is a little off kilter from the rest of society.  She’s brilliant in an understated performance that rivals any other actress this season.  It should also be noted that Carey Mulligan in a  bit of a hilariously comedic throw away cameo is providing stellar characterization as well in the role of Poor Dear Pamela.

Directed and written by Emerald Fennell, “Saltburn” is a visual feast and a mental rubik cube swirling within a thriller caldron of psychological horror.