Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights: A Bold Adaptation Review

Emerald Fennell’s first two films quickly cemented her as one of my favorite young directors, so I was pretty excited to see what she would do with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The inclusion of quotation marks in the title indicated that it wouldn’t be the most faithful adaptation of the novel yet filmed, but the source material is full of themes that seem like they would be in her wheelhouse, so it felt to me like it would be an intriguing watch. Sometimes though, when your expectations are too high, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) first met when her father (Martin Clunes) brought the boy home during one of his frequent drinking binges. The two children struck up a strong bond, that carried through into adulthood, where it threatened to become something more. Cathy clearly loves him, but she’s determined to marry into wealth, so when rich and single new neighbor Edgar (Shazad Latif) moves in she quickly plots to make herself available to him.

Heathcliff is of course upset by this development and vanishes for over a year. He returns mysteriously enriched, purchases their childhood home, and he and Cathy plunge into a torrid affair, against the advice of her caregiver Nelly (Hong Chau). Cathy, however, has no intention of leaving Edgar, and Heathcliff retaliates by turning his attention to Edgar’s naïve ward Isabella (Alison Oliver), as they continue their dangerous obsession with each other.

That their relationship could be viewed as “romantic” is only remotely true during their scenes as children, charmingly played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper. While as adults it is still clear that they are drawn to each other, nothing about it feels sweet, or even healthy. It’s not that Robbie or Elordi aren’t up to the task, rather that the characters are so utterly unlikable it’s nearly impossible to root for them. Fennell is no stranger to awful characters, but the wicked glee that animated the upper-crust monsters in Saltburn is largely absent here.

What “Wuthering Heights” does have is visual splendor. Suzie Davies’ bold production design is a site to behold and it’s all captured magnificently by director of photography Linus Sandgren, both of whom previously contributed impressive work to Saltburn. Likewise, the anachronistic songs by Charli XCX add a sly, modern pulse. The craft is undeniable, and the film is never dull. I just wish it stirred something deeper in me. Still, it gets enough right that I’ll almost certainly revisit it, ideally on one of the many wuthering days we get here by the ocean. ★★★