'Saltburn' review: Rich portrait of a promising young opportunist

A lot of deeply weird stuff happens in "Saltburn," a movie that takes a familiar premise and turns the eccentricities up to 11.

The story about Oxford University student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), an outcast from a disadvantaged background who befriends the rich and handsome Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), before worming his way into the lives of the new pal and his family, recalls "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and its multitude of ancestors and imitators.

But writer-director Emerald Fennell, following up on her promising feature filmmaking debut "Promising Young Woman," has too sharp of a visual eye and too dark a sense of humor to be merely content with replication. So we get a fever dream of a movie that takes the basic concept, framing Oliver as a parasite meticulously devouring the Catton family, and brings it to an extreme. It's unsettling, it's outlandish, but it also makes total dramatic sense.

That starts with the imagery, crafted in a style that might best be described as fashion spread gone mad. The filmmaker plays with mirrors, high angles of the characters sprawled out on the grounds of the luxurious Catton estate called Saltburn, and other forms of melodramatic framing as Oliver lurks about, all in the service of a feeling of genuine menace.

The family — the epitome of the idle rich, with a vast fortune accrued through some mysterious means — stands as the perfect target for this opportunist. And Fennell shows us the purposeful way he sets about destroying them with a focus on the physical elements: the ways the Cattons and their guest share and are separated within a space, loomed over by sprawling rooms and palatial ceilings, all captured in a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio that makes it at once vast and suffocating.

The cast members, also including luminaries such as Richard E. Grant, Rosamund Pike and Carey Mulligan, recognize that their performances must be tailored to fit this specific vision. Keoghan ("The Banshees of Inisherin") and Elordi ("Euphoria") recognize that they are playing archetypes, representations of base instincts, as much as they are actual people. So they're able to be at once deeply human, pathetic and beautiful, while also seeming to be completely alien.

"Saltburn" is not a movie for everyone. Fennell follows the story to where it must go. Exactly where that is, we won't reveal, but it's sure to prove divisive, and even off-putting to a sizable segment of its audience. But those viewers looking for a work with the courage of its convictions, and a willingness to see them through whatever the consequences, will find that its impact lingers.