Cindy Wu

I was forced to watch this when the WiFi on my British Airways plane didn't work. That is the short review of this sorry excuse for cinema. Longer review: The only moderately enjoyable part was the almost documentary like aspect of modern Oxbridge (confirmed: I went there). The clubbing, drinking, cool kid cliques, and eccentric, snobbish mathematicians; the legacy kids; the professors that don't really care and/or hold the 1-2 tutorials as if they just rolled out of bed - quite spot on. The part after he gets to Saltburn is a sacrilegious Brideshead Revisited fan fiction crossed with an... attempt at Darren Aranofsky style psychological horror. My main issue with this film is the scripting. It's utterly uninspired, bland, over the top, unintelligent. The main character's lines are usually one word at a time (or no words at all). Perhaps that's an attempt at making him seem like a tight lipped psychopath. I found Felix to be the most convincingly realistic character, and that doesn't say much as his character is every nice popular guy ever, so it's very easy to write. Since the screenwriter is incompetent with words, I guess resorting to sexually explicit or otherwise shocking scenes to garner attention always works. Now, usually one or two of these is fine, if it helps convey a point. The problem is twofold: 1) My only impression of Oliver as a person now is he's a sociopath and likes sex. Great character development; 2) I had to watch this on a plane with a 60+ year old chap next to me. I wish I had taken more melatonin and had a VERY LONG nap.