Writer/director Emerald Fennell opens her new take on “Wuthering Heights” with a cunning bit of misdirect, allowing the audience to confuse one kind of heavy breathing for another. It’s a choice that confirms the director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn as one of the boldest filmmakers working today. With Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as tragic gothic lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, Fennell takes on one of the great classic works of English literature — and also confirms her thirst for depicting the messiest aspects of humanity on screen.
In some ways, that means she’s a fantastic match for the source material: Published in 1847, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was a shocking work for its time, filled with Big Feelings. There’s an exclamation point on pretty much every single page of this book, maybe more than one, all in dialogue. Its characters defy most attempts at sympathy, and seem to glory in opportunities for spite. Fennell makes some bold changes to the narrative, but not as many as you might think, and none of the intense moments of sensuality she adds feel out of line with Brontë’s original text. Instead, they only enhance what came before.
For those unfamiliar with the classic novel, the roots of it endure here, a story of two people torn apart by class barriers and their own warped personalities. Catherine is a young girl from a noble-enough family, growing up wild in the moors of West Yorkshire, when her father brings home a foundling quickly dubbed Heathcliff. As the two grow up together, Heathcliff becomes eternally obsessed with Cathy. Unfortunately, while Cathy knows she cares for him, she can’t let herself think about that — the family’s broke thanks to her father’s drinking and gambling, and so she’s determined to marry rich to secure herself a safe future.
When an advantageous match presents itself in the form of the very wealthy Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), she can’t help but take it — especially when Heathcliff disappears immediately after she gets engaged, at the exact moment when she’s realizing how deep her feelings for him run. Years pass before Heathcliff returns, and although Cathy has done her best to settle into married life with Edgar, the return of her childhood love throws everything into chaos, wrecking more than two lives as a result.
Some of Fennell’s choices are very much in line with past adaptations — technically, Wuthering Heights takes place across two generations, but this isn’t the first movie to cut the second generation’s part, keeping the focus specifically on Cathy and Heathcliff’s toxic romance. And here it truly is toxic, the deep sympathy they once shared warped beyond repair by years of bad decisions and poor communication.
Their romance is also as horny as one might hope, highlighting the yearning, greedy pulse of life in the 19th century. It’s always glorious to watch a period drama which knows that the only reason we’re here today is that our ancestors couldn’t keep it in their pants; from the servants to the rich, everyone is full of desire, and accordingly this movie finds eroticism in everything from a runny egg yolk to a mouthful of grass.
This was the first publicity still released by Warner Bros. for this movie.
There’s a dark side to this kind of desire: The most electric scene of the movie might be an unexpected act of voyeurism Cathy and Heathcliff engage in prior to her marriage — a kinky moment which haunts Cathy for years to come. And when Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights, now inexplicably wealthy and free of his beard and long hair (controversial take: he looked better with both), things between them get intense almost instantly. But always with the undercurrent of knowing better.
Margot Robbie nimbly captures the depths of Cathy’s sometimes-petty heart at any age, a trust fall of a performance the movie doesn’t fail. Elordi, meanwhile, has the tougher assignment, especially as his Heathcliff transforms, via time jump, from a rough and lovesick youth into a man whose broken heart is masked by gilded cruelty. Yet he makes the transformation work, his newfound smugness an elegant foil for Cathy’s own stubbornness, and the two of them have an unmatched chemistry.
The supporting cast includes Oscar nominee Hong Chau as Nelly, Cathy’s lifelong “paid companion” who puts her own safety and security first, and Alison Oliver as Isabella, an innocent young relation of Edgar’s who Heathcliff marries for a brief time. Fennell takes her biggest swings with Isabella’s storyline, establishing the character’s deeply ingrained repression before transforming her into a young woman unleashed, not necessarily for the better. It’s juicy stuff for Oliver, and her performance captures both the good and the bad of infatuation on this level.
There’s such visceral attention being paid to every element of the filmmaking, especially the production design — the decrepit Wuthering Heights where Cathy and Heathcliff grew up is rendered in sharp contrast to the sleek, modern, and quasi-disturbing decor and furnishings of Thrushcross Grange. The rooms of Edgar’s house feature details like flesh-textured walls and glossy red floors that turn firelight into hellfire; a modern flair also served by the bold patterns and colors of the wardrobe (especially Cathy’s gowns). Cinematographer Linus Sandgren brings such lushness to the cinematography as well, with some breathtaking use of color when called for.
Charli XCX’s song contributions, meanwhile, fit beautifully with the quasi-tragic/quasi-toxic tone here— incorporated heavily into the soundtrack, they feel purely additive, like Fennell magically found the exact right needle drops for these scenes. In context, they don’t distract at all from the actual action of the film, while still capturing the vibe beautifully on their own. It’s a pretty perfect marriage of music and visual. Much more perfect than any of the actual marriages seen in this movie.
As soon as this project was announced, it was easy to assume that Fennell would show as much reverence for the classic text as she showed for the sanctity of a man’s grave in Saltburn. Except she defies that assumption by making sure that although “Wuthering Heights” remains a deliciously horny film, it does summon a certain degree of pure romance, especially in the few moments when its leads are able to see past their misunderstandings and actually connect. It’s a movie about how ugly people can be to each other, but also about the beauty they’re capable of — a message that, like the original text itself, remains timeless.
“Wuthering Heights” arrives in theaters on Friday, February 13th. Check out the trailer below.
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