'Wuthering Heights' Review
- Tiffany McLaughlin
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 02/12/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Drama. Romance.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
The Verdict: A Must-See
Each film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights can almost be seen as a personal love letter from the filmmaker to the book based on how they present the story to us. Which scenes from the book they favor, which lines they move around, the order in which major plot points do or don’t happen, and even how the ending will be changed. Although some of them feel like carbon copies of each other, there are always some creative liberties taken to allow it to operate as its own interpretation, and this most recent version by Emerald Fennell is no exception.
Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is a sexually driven, campy, visually maximalist fever dream… and I loved it.
Catherine Earnshaw meets her new foster brother Heathcliff, whom her father saves from the streets. Mr. Earnshaw is repeatedly emotionally abrasive to Cathy, and physically harmful to Heathcliff. Years later, Cathy marries her neighbor, Edgar Linton, to escape her father’s torment and declining living conditions. Heartbroken Heathcliff runs away, returning years later very rich and still very much in love with Cathy. Drawn out chaos ensues when Cathy and Heathcliff begin an intense love affair.
As a fan of the book, I go into each adaptation open minded. Fennell's version of Wuthering Heights is essentially a reimagination of the first half of the book, disregarding some of its themes in order to get a magnified look into the love affair between our two main characters. While it does deviate from the traditional structure, as well as removing some key characters, I still found it successful in capturing the gruelling nature of Heathcliff and his toxic relationship with Cathy, with the visual mastery of the accompanying cinematography and set designs keeping the viewer engaged. The music in this also rocks.
First and foremost, Hong Chau’s Nelly Dean has a particularly strong focus making her ulterior motives crystal clear within the plot, which I appreciated. Nelly sort of just exists in other versions, but Chau’s cut throat performance reminds us why this character is so important. Aside from the obvious age difference, Margot Robbie’s strong willed, witty and untamed Cathy is closest to what I pictured when reading the book out of all past onscreen iterations. While I definitely would have been interested to see Healthcliff cast as a person of color as his character is described in the book, I do appreciate Jacob Elordi’s performance. Although, I will say that I am still stumped on the marketing tagline for this film claiming “The Greatest Love Story Ever Told” when the film very explicitly showcases the toxicity of their relationship.
This version is certainly not interested in being a page-accurate translation of the source material. I can appreciate aspects of what each adaptation brings out of this age-old story, and Emerald Fennell's interpretation re-contextualizes Wuthering Heights’ themes in a way that resonated with me.
