SALTBURN

Name: SALTBURN
Item: SALTBURN
Author: Review

"Masterful Thriller, Marred by a Rushed Story and Dreadful Morals"

Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

SALTBURN is the tense, disturbing story of an Oxford student named Oliver, whose infatuation with his classmate, Felix Catton, turns obsessive. The obsession begins when Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s manor. Oliver sees the sex-fueled, wealthy lifestyle of the Catton family as a means to improve his circumstances. So, he manipulates them into tearing their own lives apart. Finally, Oliver comes up with a truly devious, evil plan to manipulate Felix’s mother so he can steal the family’s manor for himself.

SALTBURN is a masterclass in everything that comprises a phenomenally crafted movie. However, the script is far too rushed to tease out the fine layers that really strong psychological thrillers unfold. For example, Oliver’s scheme is hastily and awkwardly revealed in the final minutes. Also, there’s insufficient foreshadowing to make the plot twist hit viewers with enough impact. Much worse SALTBURN’s dreadful morals, which depict its characters’ vices with grotesque candor. The characters’ sexual promiscuity, excessive foul language, and overall immoral attitudes and behavior make the movie unsuitable for moviegoers, especially for discerning, media-wise viewers.

Content:

(PaPaPa, HoHo, LLL, V, SSS, NNN, A, DD, MMM)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong hedonistic, self-centered, immoral, pagan worldview where the protagonist manipulates, tricks and even murders his way into a substantial fortune, with no repercussions or repentance, and the morals of the supporting characters aren’t much better, plus strong homosexual content and behavior

Foul Language:

At least 65 “f” words, eight other obscenities, seven strong profanities using the name of Jesus Christ, and six light profanities

Violence:

Two scenes of dead bodies being found, one of which involves blood, and a man takes a character off life support to let her die

Sex:

Very strong sexual content includes frequent references to sexual activity, including homosexuality, polyamory, and incest, three scenes of unmarried sexual contact (one is homosexual), and two scenes of male auto-

Nudity:

Full male nudity

Alcohol Use:

Frequent drinking at parties, bars and meals

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Cigarette smoking and cocaine use; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Manipulation, deception, and hurting people to benefit oneself materially without any negative repercussions.

More Detail:

SALTBURN is the tense, disturbing story of an Oxford student named Oliver (Barry Keoghan), whose infatuation with his classmate, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), turns obsessive when Felix invites him to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s manor. Seeing the sex-fueled, wealthy lifestyle of Saltburn’s denizens as a means to improve his circumstances, Oliver plays the Catton family off each other, manipulating them into tearing their own lives apart. Finally, after convincing the final Catton (Rosamund Pike), hospitalized with a serious illness, to leave Saltburn and her fortune to him in her will, Oliver forcibly takes her off life support, taking his friend Felix’ former home for himself.

SALTBURN is a masterclass in everything that comprises a phenomenally crafted motion picture. The movie’s mise-en-scéne or visual composition in a scene is among the year’s best. Barry Keoghan gives one of his career best performances. Oscar-winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren delivers some of his finest work. However, SALTBURN has a major weakness. Its script is far too rushed to delicately tease out the fine layers that a strong psychological thriller must adeptly unfold. Oliver’s scheme is hastily and awkwardly revealed in the final minutes, with insufficient foreshadowing to make the plot twist hit the audience with enough impact.

Just as severe an issue are SALTBURN’s dreadful morals, which depict its characters’ vices with grotesque candor. The characters’ sexual promiscuity, excessive foul language and overall immoral attitudes and behavior worldview make the movie unsuitable entertainment, especially for discerning, media-wise viewers.