I became a huge fan of Emerald Fennell after Promising Young Woman, and this film had so much awards circuit buzz I put it on with great anticipation.

And while it had some great stuff in it, it's a bit overlong and if you're old enough to have seen The Talented Mr Ripley, it's virtually the same story (I haven't even seen that movie, it just made such a cultural impact at the time it was impossible not to know everything about it). In fact it's another eat the rich fable the likes of which we get from Hollywood all the time.

Oliver (Barry Keoghan, his star rising ever rapidly through the indie film ranks) is a middle class kid on a scholarship to Oxford, hobnobbing with all the rich kids and initially thinking he has to wear a collar and tie to do so before he discovers how anti-establishment, freewheeling and carefree they really are.

He's drawn to tall, handsome Felix (Jacob Elordi), and while it's never established whether Oliver is really gay or bi or just prepared to go to any lengths to get what he wants (as we see later), the two become fast friends so deeply and rapidly it's a kind of falling in love, Felix feeling sorry for Oliver's past of abusive parents and substance issues.

Even though Oliver holds on too tight and Felix starts to get tired of him and avoid him, he changes his mind when his young friend is distraught at the death of his father, inviting Oliver to spend the summer break at his family's palatial country home, a manor in the fields called Saltburn.

Oliver readily agrees, meeting the rest of the family, ditzy mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), well meaning but clueless father James (Richard E Grant), precocious sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), A family cousin from America, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) and family friend Pamela (Carey Mulligan).

The Catton family are sweet as pie to Oliver and absolute monsters, with such a dysfunctional view of human life, culture and the masses Felix is borderline embarrassed to expose Oliver to them, but the latter quickly adapts their bizarre rituals and lifestyle.

It's when he settles in that Oliver seems to change, and that's the first problem with the movie. Until then he's been a proxy for the audience, a clueless dolt trying to learn how to behave among the ultra-rich and enjoy himself, but a few scenes reveal him to be far cannier and apparently having a long term plan we have no idea about. We even get the climactic montage showing just how pivotal he's been in the events we've just seen.

It's a problem because I never knew what to believe about him throughout the entire movie. Maybe it was the script, maybe it was Keoghan's performance, but I never really believed what he said and as the anchor for you as an audience member to enter the story, you never know where you are.

It seems like I'm describing something that should be a positive because it would ordinarily provide mystery and intrigue, and I can't put my finger on why but it just kept me at arm's length from the whole thing.

As the summer wears on and Oliver fenangles his way into staying at the house – even after more than one family member has tired of him and his manipulation – things go from bizarre to murderous, further into the realm of what feels like outright fantasy as Oliver completes his plan.

In amongst telling the story, it seems like one of the mandates Fennell set for herself was to portray the kind of unbridled hedonism we imagine the filthy rich get up to when there are no consequences.

All the reviews I read talked about 'that' scene, and after watching it I wondered which one they were all talking about - the one where Oliver takes his clothes off and fucks a freshly filled-in grave, the one where he goes down on Venetia while she has her period (lecherously purring 'luckily I'm a vampire') or the one where he sucks Felix's cum out of an emptying bath.

After all that, the long tracking shot of Oliver running and dancing joyously naked throughout the mansion with little Barry flapping around on full show seems tame by comparison.

It's a well made movie by many measures, but it made me think of Greta Gerwig's career. After all her indie dramas they gave her a bigger budget and sandbox to make Little Women and when it came to the art and craft on screen, she shined.

After Promising Young Woman it feels like they gave Fennell a similarly larger canvas and she while the staging, sets, costumes and locations are all top notch, it feels like she just needed to reign herself in a bit more.

And yes, like the rest of the world, I spent the next fortnight playing Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder of the Dance Floor on YouTube every five minutes.