- Director: Emerald Fennell
- Screenplay: Emerald Fennell
- Based on: ‘Wuthering Heights‘ by Emily Brontë
- Cast: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell
- Cinematography: Linus Sandgren
- Editing: Victoria Boydell
- Music: Anthony Willis (score), Charli XCX (songs)
- Genre: Period romantic drama
- Runtime: 136 minutes
Out on the wily, windy moors…
Okay, so full disclosure – I’ve not read the novel on which this is based upon. I’m vaguely aware of the plot points but I thought I’d try to judge this purely as a theatrical experience untethered from its source material.
However, one thing I can’t avoid mentioning is the casting choices. Firstly, Margot Robbie is too old to play Catherine Earnshaw. By the end of the book, Cathy is meant to be 18/19, so still a teenager – Robbie is in her mid-thirties (roughly double Cathy’s age). Secondly, Heathcliff is supposed to be of Romani ethnicity. Here, they’ve whitewashed his character and cast Jacob Elordi in the role. I’m all for colourblind casting. This allows actors like Hong Chau (playing Nelly Dean) and Shazad Latif (as Edgar Linton) to act in something written in the 19th century, a time when fictional persons were mostly white. But such a pivotal character being misrepresented in this way is a mistake.
I mean, I can’t fault the accents of the duo (someone give their dialect coach a raise). A way round the casting furore is by saying it’s just an adaptation. Emerald Fennell has put the title in quotation marks on promotional material – this is her version, as loose an adaptation as Catherine’s corsets are tight.
Fennell’s take on ‘Wuthering Heights‘ is a feast for the eyes. The visuals at Linton’s manor are grand, overflowing with lavishness. The cinematography is divine; the colours pop, especially the vibrant reds. Every frame is worthy of being hung in an art gallery. In presentation alone, she’s nailed it.
Everything else comes undone. Those of you who were lured in by the film’s marketing ploy – a Valentine’s Day weekend release window – believing this to be a love story for the ages, you’ve been misled. Cathy’s a brat, Heathcliff is a brute. Both quite repugnant characters. Add some domestic violence and coercive control. It’s not exactly a suitable date night movie for couples yearning to lose themselves in a romantic yarn. In terms of the acting, the mutual attraction is palpable but nothing more than that. I couldn’t feel the deep longing for each other.
If it’s not a love story, then it’s one of lust. Except, I didn’t get that impression either. I went in expecting a way raunchier final product. There’s a lot of clandestine snogging and a sequence where Cathy is transfixed by thick dough being kneaded as if it’s human flesh. There are sex scenes (naturally), yet they’re brief and you don’t really see anything.
Fennell’s version of ‘Wuthering Heights‘ is somewhat sanitised. Not rough and filthy and dirty like those beautiful windswept moors.
My rating: 5 / 10
SilverScreen 