★★★★★

“Wuthering Heights”, the latest film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s iconic novel, was released in theatres just before Valentine’s Day, and the timing could not have been better. 

The movie opens with a dramatic scene of a public hanging—a disturbing yet historically accurate punishment for the 18th century. A young Catherine Earnshaw (Charlotte Mellington) watches with morbid fascination, disgusted yet thrilled by the display. 

Catherine is wild, and she loves to run through the isolated Yorkshire moors. The stunning yet harsh landscape of Northern England provides the backdrop for much of the film. 

Her home, Wuthering Heights, is a fortress-like farmhouse made of crumbling black stone. Standing atop a cliff exposed to the abrasive wind, Catherine finds her father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes), drunk and barely able to stand. Earnshaw is always either drunk or gambling away their money, and because of his hedonistic lifestyle, their estate is falling into ruin. 

On this night, however, Catherine finds a young boy whom she names Heathcliff (Owen Cooper) under her bed. Earnshaw tells Catherine that he is a gift, and Catherine happily takes him in to be her “pet.”

Heathcliff has no family, and even though he is welcomed into the Earnshaws’ lives, he is put to work and treated like a servant. From the beginning, Heathcliff and Catherine are inseparable, and their love for one another is apparent as they run through the rocky hills and play in the countryside out of Earnshaw’s view. 

After a few years, grown-up Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) notice that the sprawling, luxurious manor adjacent to Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, has been bought. Their new neighbor is Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), whom Catherine quickly becomes obsessed with because of his wealth and gentlemanly charm. 

The movie then follows the tumultuous relationships between Catherine, Heathcliff, Edgar, and his strange ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver). The film keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, and the romance between Catherine and Heathcliff is both intense and destructive. The two are either passionately in love or swearing to destroy one another. 

The sets are wonderfully bizarre, and much of the film feels like a fever dream. The oddity is not exclusively visual either—when Edgar commissions a room for Catherine, he states that he wanted it to be the color of her face, complete with her freckles and veins covering the walls. 

If you are a fan of the novel and expect to see that exact plot on screen, this film is not for you. 

The story is very loosely based on the book, so if you go in expecting a textually accurate adaptation, you will inevitably be disappointed. But the inaccuracy serves a point in the film. For example, Catherine wears huge ballgowns that are almost obnoxiously modern, showing how Catherine and Heathcliff’s romance transcends time periods and reality. 

The soundtrack is also a vital part of the film, featuring multiple original songs by Charli XCX that play throughout. It is a stark contrast from most adaptations, which typically use classical music to avoid instrumental anachronism. And yet, the loud hyperpop suits the film’s extravagant vibe, immersing viewers rather than estranging them.

One of the main controversies surrounding the film is the decision to cast Elordi as Heathcliff. In the novel, Heathcliff is heavily implied not to be white. He is described as “dark-skinned,” and several textual clues suggest he is of mixed ethnicity. This is a central theme of the novel and is part of why Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is ultimately doomed. The choice to cast Elordi, a white Australian actor, has faced backlash and accusations of “whitewashing” yet another POC character in Hollywood. 

“Wuthering Heights” celebrates the 1847 novel’s strangeness in a modern way—it is romantic and steamy, shocking and devastating. And although it does not follow the novel word for word, it is a fantastic interpretation of a beloved classic.