To prepare for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s gothic masterpiece, Wuthering Heights, I decided to listen to the audiobook. However, about 4 hours into the novel I realized that the novel was too dense to be listened to, so I went to my local Barnes & Noble and purchased the novel. To this date I still have not picked it up and it sits on my bookshelf. However, when the first teaser for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights dropped, my first thought was “that isn’t Wuthering Heights.” Deep in the back of my mind I contemplated how Fennell’s provocative filmmaking would blend with Bronte writing. It went just as I expected. Fennell read the SparkNotes and decided it wasn’t smutty enough for her. So she made this adaptation for BookTok girlies who believe the entire quality of a novel is determined by how smutty it is.
In 18th-century England, a tragically passionate romance begins to brew in the Yorkshire Moors, between Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein) is a stableboy who is treated as an outsider by his lords, and Catherine Earnshaw (Margo Robbie, Barbie) a lady of a dying house. Their romance starts off as innocent before it turns into intense destruction that will bring both of them to their ends.
Say what you want about Emerald Fennell, but she knows how to make a feast for the eyes. Historical accuracy be damned, there is no denying how immaculate the entire production is. Injecting the costume and production design with the bright, vibrant colors of Technicolor, Wuthering Heights is a gorgeous looking film with sweeping cinematography that feels straight out of Gone With the Wind. And though narratively the film is a mess, Wuthering Heights is a well-made film. Fennell’s vision is incredibly strong, the score has a distinctive pulse and the performances for the most part outside of the two miscast lands. But that is about it for compliments.
Narratively, Emerald Fennell takes the path that many previous adaptations have done where she only adapts half of the novel that focuses on Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship. However, unlike previous adaptations that are fully aware that their relationship is toxic and is treated like such. Fennell decided that treating toxic romances as toxic isn’t marketable for BookTok girlies and decided to frame their toxic and destructive relationship as something that is not only hot, but should be aspired towards. At its heart, Wuthering Heights is a novel about two toxic people who are so strongly bonded by their trauma, burn everything down, including themselves, because they don’t want to process their shared trauma. And in their avoidance they destroy not only themselves, but the lives of generations to come. There is nothing about this story that is romantic, yet Fennell chose to make it romantic anyway.
However, I do personally try to separate adaptations from their source material as film and literature are two different artistic mediums. So judging this film on its own two feet, it still fails at being one of the most romantic films of the year. Cathy and Heathcliff are both terrible people. Cathy is a manipulative liar who will sabotage and backstab anyone to get what she wants. And when she doesn’t she throws temper tantrums by sulking and crying to get what she wants. Heathcliff on the other hand is an obsessive sadist. His obsession for Cathy is terrifying. And in his jealous rage, he becomes violent and horrifying. I never cheered for these two people to be together, yet the film tries desperately to make you cheer for their romance. Setting them up as “couple’s goals”.
Now this wouldn’t be a problem if Emerald casted these two characters properly, but sadly she chose hot casting rather than accuracy. Margo Robbie is simply too old to play Cathy as she lacks the teenage, mean-girl spirit. Cathy is supposed to be in her late teens and early twenties in the novel, and Margo sadly doesn’t match that description. As for Heathcliff, while Jacob Elordi does nail the terrifying intensity of this character, it is hard to get around the whitewashing. Heathcliff is supposed to be Romani and that is an essential reason as to why he was mistreated. To cast a white man in the role robs this essential element of this character. Especially given that Cathy and Heathcliff are implied half-siblings. There is nothing romantic about that.
Overall, it felt like Emerald Fennell read the SparkNotes of Wuthering Heights and decided that she could do it better. Emerald Fennell took this gothic masterpiece and stripped it of its intelligence, and made it for illiterate BookTok girlies who believe the amount of smut a book has is the only way to determine its quality. Wuthering Heights not only fails as an adaptation, but it fails in just basic storytelling. Sure it has some great crafts, a couple of great performances (Alison Oliver and Martin Clunes, you are innocent), and some good scenes, but this film is not as smart as it thinks it is. Hell the film is not even as smutty as it thinks it is.
My Rating: C-
Wuthering Heights is now in theaters Nationwide.
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