Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning debut Promising Young Woman stars a miscast Barry Keoghan (he’s way too old for the role) as Oliver, a first-year student at Oxford who finds himself drawn into the rarefied inner circle of beautiful, privileged Felix (Jacob Elordi). Felix is the heir to Saltburn, a huge country pile that comes complete with its own maze and a collection of elegantly louche relatives and damaged hangers-on. Oliver, whose background is rather more modest, is unhealthily fascinated by Felix and the world he inhabits. And well he might be – in Saltburn, every whim is there to be enjoyed, every impulse is to be pursued.
Unfortunately, Fennell has adopted the same untrammelled, indulgent approach with the screenplay and direction, both of which are unhindered by concerns such as character coherence, logic and, in particular, pacing. There’s no rhythm to the film, no sense of buildup and payoff. There are occasional perverse pleasures – Rosamund Pike, as Felix’s mother Elspeth, is gloriously rude; Archie Madekwe, as poor relation Farleigh, is a malicious delight – but there is little satisfaction to be found in the picture’s messily uninhibited climax.
