Opening in theaters on February 13 is ‘Wuthering Heights,’ written and directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, and Owen Cooper.
8mpxhgvr04Tl4gbURwG6V4Related Article: 20 Best Margot Robbie Movies Ranked Including ‘Wuthering Heights’
Initial Thoughts
Inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 novel (thus the quotation marks around the title in the credits and marketing), Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ is not your mother’s well-read copy of the book. It’s not Laurence Olivier and William Wyler’s relatively faithful 1939 ‘Wuthering Heights’ either. Instead, it’s what you might call a remix of the Brontë tale, streamlined to focus almost exclusively on the relationship between Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and the enigmatic Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), while stripping out much of the novel’s later narrative and ramping up the eroticism.
Maybe surprisingly, it works. Fennell (‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘Saltburn’) has concocted a rich, full-bodied, almost classic film with gorgeous, windswept settings, an immersive atmosphere, and a chemistry between its two leads that practically fogs up the screen. No, it’s not particularly slavish to the text, but it’s a sweeping, epic tale of love, lust, vengeance, and forgiveness that crackles with passion and sexual energy.
Story and Direction
When Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw is a little girl, her father – who fancies himself a generous man but is actually a gambling and alcohol addict with an abusive temper — takes in a street urchin named Heathcliff who becomes Cathy’s best friend and, in time, hopelessly devoted to her. Cathy and Heathcliff are seemingly bonded for life, much to the consternation of serving girl Nelly, who may have her own repressed feelings for Cathy.
As they grow older, Mr. Earnshaw becomes more dissolute and their estate – Wuthering Heights – falls further into disrepair. But while Heathcliff remains steadfastly true to Cathy, she has her eye on marrying the wealthy new neighbor, Edgar Linton, at the estate next door. When Heathcliff overhears her saying that she would ‘degrade’ herself by marrying her poor friend – despite the fact that she loves him dearly – he departs Wuthering Heights and doesn’t return for five years, during which time he makes his own fortune – and Cathy, although still desperately in love with Heathcliff, does in fact marry Linton.
Thus begins an escalating series of events as Cathy and Heathcliff first deny then ultimately give into their true passion, until their affair threatens to smash their lives and that of those around them to pieces. That’s when love and desire curdle into cruelty and psychological abuse, even as the illicit couple’s romance takes on epic, tragic proportions.
In adapting the novel, Fennell combines or discards characters, and leaves an entire generation of Lintons and Earnshaws off the playing field. In doing so, she shifts the focus from generational trauma squarely onto Cathy, Heathcliff, and their feelings for each other that are painfully romantic, bursting with unrestrained ardor, yet also torturously destructive. Through her exceptional lead actors and Fennell’s own grasp of how yearning can be physically and emotionally consuming, Cathy and Heathcliff’s desire practically oozes off the screen.
This probably wouldn’t be an Emerald Fennell film if she didn’t also make a little more explicit what could only be implicit in 1847. While there’s barely a glimpse of naked skin to be seen – which somehow makes it more erotic – multiple characters in the film indulge in the pleasures of the flesh and a bit more. In a relationship that blooms (if that’s the word) between two characters later in the film (fans of the book will know who we mean), some BDSM comes into play that adds a bit of unbridled perversity to the proceedings.
Cast and Performances
After following ‘Barbie’ with the misbegotten ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,’ Margot Robbie bounces back here with the kind of screen-filling, brave performance that she became known for early on. Her Cathy is irritating, self-pitying, calculating, and class-obsessed, yet also passionate, kind, loving, lustful, and heartbreaking – with Robbie delivering it all in a masterful balance of conflicting emotions and characteristics that make us feel every inch of Cathy’s titanic regret and desire.
Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff comes hard on the heels of his magnificent portrayal of the creature in ‘Frankenstein’ and is another triumph for this quickly developing actor. As with Robbie’s Cathy, Heathcliff is a man who contains multitudes: he’s feral, brutish, cunning, and capable of great cruelty, yet also charming, vulnerable, and aching with love, loss, and untold suffering. Elordi gives him not just an imposing physical presence, but a powerful emotional one as well, making this enigmatic character both alluring and frightening.
As for the rest of the main cast, Hong Chau is her usual magnificent self as Nelly, although the character’s often obscured motivations come across as murkier on the screen. But her own pain and sadness are evident throughout. Alison Oliver is an eerie Isabella, but Shazad Latif gets a bit of the short end of the stick as Linton, who never quite becomes much more than an emotional punching bag for the leads.
Final Thoughts
With Linus Sandgren’s breathtaking cinematography – which soars, climbs, and gallops through beautifully desolate, foggy, and craggy locations in Yorkshire — Anthony Willis’ haunting score, and even the needle drops from Charli XcX (which sound anachronistic on paper but work here) all adding texture and immersion to the proceedings, Emerald Fennell and her cast have devised a truly towering romance in ‘Wuthering Heights.’
Purists may grumble about certain aspects, but this is an adaptation based on a particular vision – a vision that adds a modern edge to a book that, while still universal in its themes, is now nearly two centuries old. Even if you don’t care personally for this extravagant, extraordinary film, it may introduce new generations to the source text – making Cathy and Heathcliff immortal all over again.
‘Wuthering Heights’ receives a score of 90 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Wuthering Heights’?
In a crumbling estate on the West Yorkshire Moors, status-minded Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw and the mysterious Heathcliff pursue their tormented, passionate love for each other across the years, while wreaking havoc on both the Earnshaw family and their neighbors, the Lintons.
Who is in the cast of ‘Wuthering Heights’?
- Margot Robbie as Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw
- Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff
- Hong Chau as Nelly Dean
- Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton
- Alison Oliver as Isabella Linton
- Martin Clunes as Mr. Earnshaw
- Ewan Mitchell as Joseph
- Charlotte Mellington as young Catherine
- Owen Cooper as young Heathcliff
- Vy Nguyen as young Nelly Dean
List of Margot Robbie Movies
- ‘About Time’ (2013)
- ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
- ‘Z for Zachariah’ (2015)
- ‘Focus’ (2015)
- ‘The Big Short’ (2015)
- ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ (2016)
- ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ (2016)
- ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
- ‘I, Tonya’ (2017)
- ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ (2017)
- ‘Peter Rabbit’ (2018)
- ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (2018)
- ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ (2019)
- ‘Bombshell’ (2019)
- ‘Birds of Prey’ (2020)
- ‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021)
- ‘Amsterdam’ (2022)
- ‘Babylon’ (2022)
- ‘Asteroid City’ (2023)
- ‘Barbie’ (2023)
- ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ (2025)
- ‘Wuthering Heights’ (2026)
