I had been anxious to see this film due to the presence of Barry Keoghan as I found him fascinating in The Killing of a Sacred Deer and immensely entertaining in The Banshees of Inisherin, however the one thing I wasn't expecting was to see him in such an erotic role, but eroticism is the name of the game here and he plays it boldly and very well, to put it mildly. That's a good thing as he is front and center and in between at all times. I knew he was one of the leads in this, but I didn't know how much his role dominated the film. I've viewed this twice now and he is truly excellent. He plays innocent, backwards, funny, sexy, mysterious, sly, vile and evil all equally well. His presence and his performance is very fortunate as the film itself offers nothing terribly original in this Purple Noon/Mr. Ripley scenario, though the writing is witty and smart and there is nothing wrong with the rest of the cast either. They just don't have roles like he does! The object of his adoration is played by Jacob Elordi who does a good job here as does Rosamund Pike, Archie Madekwe and Carey Mulligan is a small, extremely funny role. As has been much discussed this does have a couple of rather outrageous scenes that might be upsetting to some, so those easily, or perhaps even those not so easily offended, might want to avoid this. As has also been much discussed Keoghan does have a rather extensive nude sequence. Besides the nudity, which he has nothing to be ashamed of, I'm not sure what to make of this scene. I can understand its existence, but I'm a little unclear as to why he sashays through it in the manner that he does. This is Emerald Fennell's second film as a director and while it hasn't received the acclaim of the first, Promising Young Woman, I did enjoy this more.
Review of Saltburn
