No one is more critical of a movie than she who has read the book. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is an agonizing, violent, gothic novel. Yet, it’s entirely beloved (by myself and all those I’ve convinced to read it). This particular classic sets impossible standards for an adaptation, in not only its depth and complexity, but in a sheer logistical sense. While I was more than happy to flip through my paperback and read about the generations of destruction caused by Catherine and Heathcliff’s love, I’m not sure I’d be as keen to sit through hours upon hours of it in a theater. A true adaptation simply cannot do this 400-page, multigenerational book justice.
Reminiscent of the glamour, shock-factor, and extravagance of Saltburn, “Wuthering Heights“ certainly delivers in terms of that can’t-look-away quality. But, these aren’t the only three things the two films have in common — the other trio is screenwriter and director Emerald Fennell, actress and producer Margot Robbie as Catherine, and actor Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.
While Charli’s xcx “Everything Is Romantic” teases the film as a romance, I hear it as more of Fennell’s song than Catherine and Heathcliff’s. Her film doesn’t dare replicate the novel she so treasures. Rather, it realizes the hopes, fantasies, and resentments she experienced while reading it for the first time as a teenage girl (because who better to reinterpret an agonizing love story?) As we grow older and our favorite characters stay the same age, re-reading, re-interpreting, and re-experiencing our favorite stories is the truest meaning of falling in love, again and again.
re-watch.
Although an hour and a half of film doesn’t have the capacity to depict the generations of revenge and anguish in the wake of Cathy and Heathcliff’s love, Fennell shows this violence in other ways. From the cinching of corsets to public hangings, violence is ever-present throughout the film. Lovers haunting each other isn’t seen so much as lovers finding one another, and loneliness is less highlighted than desire.
All of this talk of darkness and haunting sounds fitting for a 19th century gothic novel — but its contents must have felt rather scandalous at the time of their debut. Murder, love affairs, and spirits would be rather startling to readers at the time. So while the glittering, candy-colored costumes and sets of “Wuthering Heights” seem out of place in our retrospective view of the book, I like to think that Fennell is creating a similar element of surprise as Brontë did. The aggression and hatred within this story surely came to its very first readers as a surprise back in 1847, not unlike how the glittering visuals and sexuality of the film form the shock-factor delivered to lovers of the book today. Both Brontë and Fennell as writers have delivered the potency of this story in different ways, based on what would most startle their audiences. Watch “Wuthering Heights” in theaters this Valentine’s Day to relive and re-love this classic gothic novel — nearly 200 years apart.
Although inaccurate to the book, elements like sugary pinks, dollhouses, and sexual discovery are unexpected by those who have read it. That’s what I like most about Fennell’s interpretation: we are experiencing Wuthering Heights in a way that only she experienced, only one time. But, don’t be fooled — this film is certainly not all declarations of love and ripping of bodices.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s love story looks a bit like how Margot Robbie’s iridescent pink gown might look dragging through a pool of blood. Add a couple pairs of quotation marks to the original title, and we have Fennell’s fantastically stylized interpretation of, in the words of our new Cathy (AKA Margot Robbie), “the most sadomasochistic relationship I can think of.”
Speaking of gowns, costume designer Jacqueline Durran crafted dreamlike displays of Catherine’s newfound status in her marriage through her wardrobe. She notably dresses Robbie in red, evoking those recurring themes of passion and violence. To Heathcliff, Catherine’s red attire is “the blood that pumps through the heart and his blood to him. It’s Cathy’s blood, they share a heart,” as articulated by Elordi. Just like Brontë’s first readers struck by the violence of their love, we didn’t expect this sexuality and passion from the violent tale, us modern readers are familiar with.
“Some movies are designed to make you think, and some movies are designed to make you feel. And I think this is all feeling.”
Margot Robbie
Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a tale of haunting, ruinous passion. While it is anything but a love story in the traditional sense, it’s a classic for a reason. Brontë will have you flipping back a page to make sure you read it right (Heathcliff did what?). She’ll shock you with the means her characters are driven to in order to achieve their desires, then stun you with the most poetic lines you’ve ever read. But these are not to be confused with romance.
“He is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Emily Brontë
Cathy and Heathcliff love each other, but, as Elordi describes, “they use pain to tell each other that they love each other.” Because, as much as they do, they cannot be together — although they certainly try.
“They torture each other and they torture themselves, and they love each other and they love themselves, and they hate each other and they hate themselves, and it’s why this whole relationship is so intoxicating.”
Margot Robbie
re-read.
I adore re-reading my favorite books, especially at different points in my life. I love reuniting with these characters with whom I’m so familiar, and allowing them to teach me new lessons I didn’t understand the last time around. Watching “Wuthering Heights“, we are experiencing the very first of Fennell’s experiences reading the book. All her wishes and disappointments within and beyond the novel are laid out on the big screen rather than in the margins.
One of the many advantages of reading a book before watching its movie adaptation is drawing your own mental portraits of the characters. But, it’s a pet peeve of mine when they don’t match up with what I imagined — my visuals become strong enough that I’ll confuse the characters in the movie. In the book, my Catherine had an almost ghostly appearance, with brunette locks and dark eyes. Margot Robbie’s lighter features have nothing to do with the story, though. I thought maybe Edgar would look a bit mousier, or just have a duller personality in general. As for Heathcliff, however, tall, dark, and handsome is not going to cut it in terms of representing the character.
Brontë ambiguously describes Heathcliff as “dark” and ethnic-looking. By his adoptive family (if you can even call them that), Heathcliff is not just a stranger with a mysterious backstory. He is a person of color who is treated as a servant, unfit to belong in the family — least of all suitable to marry Catherine Earnshaw. The film emphasizes his inferiority in class, but fails to address the vital role of Heathcliff’s race in the story, given that Elordi is a white actor. While the cast is not necessarily lacking in diversity, the point is that the supporting actors’ race is not what needs to be addressed to propel the story forward. But, race as a part of Heathcliff’s identity is integral to why his need to be with Cathy can never be fully realized.
Elordi is becoming a pillar of gothic literature adaptations, in not only this role as Heathcliff, but also in his recent work in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Either the trend here is him playing 19th century gothic leads, or it’s playing characters declared as monsters… Whatever the common factor is, his performance is phenomenal and I hope to see him in more classical adaptations. Unfortunately, however, a white actor simply cannot represent the entirety of Heathcliff’s character, nor the conflict at the core of the novel.
re-listen.
I’ve laughed at more than a few TikToks set to that snippet from the soundtrack created by Charli xcx (“I think I’m gonna die in this house…” — you know the one). Comical as those are, this song genuinely made for an incredibly jarring opening of the film. It introduced both the violent and sultry themes central to Fennell’s reinvention of Wuthering Heights.
But remember, Wuthering Heights (no italics here!) is, in fact, a place. It’s a cold, dark estate that once housed the childhood love between Catherine and Heathcliff — which can never be recovered. Its property line marks the physical and emotional separation of the two. When sold from one inhabitant to the next, this marks a transfer of power. Wuthering Heights is both a prison to those who call it home, and a reminder, for those who left, of what could have been. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to die in that house.
Regret is deeply central to both this book and this movie. Kate Bush’s song inspired by the story channels this torment, allowing listeners a glimmer of hope that not all is lost for Cathy and Heathcliff. But alas, it is, and Charli captures it beautifully. I particularly love Fennell’s choice of Charli as the maker of her film’s score because it’s reminiscent of Fennell’s teenage perception of Wuthering Heights. Given Charli’s audience and her popstar status, these seem qualification enough for her to make the soundtrack of “Wuthering Heights“.
again and again.
This isn’t the first time Wuthering Heights will be adapted, and it certainly won’t be the last creative interpretation of classic literature. It’s actually a relief to me that this film doesn’t try to replicate Brontë’s book — it would only disappoint readers by falling short of such a masterpiece. Instead, we get to experience an alternate universe of Wuthering Heights. But, I wonder: if this universe of “Wuthering Heights” lived on past the credits rolling, would Fennell’s Heathcliff go on to become the monster that Brontë made him? According to Elordi, he would.
“I do feel like these characters are fated. They’re written fated… I think the story ends the same.”
Jacob Elordi
Just as I return to my own copy of Wuthering Heights time and time again, it’s a comfort to know that in every universe, original or interpreted, they’re the original characters, with their original love, at the core of each rendition.
If I haven’t made it clear yet, Cathy and Heathcliff’s passion for one another is not something to romanticize. They torture themselves and those around them. In Elordi’s words, they both do “all the things you shouldn’t do in real life when you love someone and they’re not available.” Regardless, their destruction channels, the passion we all possess, to an extent we never actually (and should never) pursue.
“That kind of obsession in love exists in all of us, we just kind of access it and utilize it in different ways.”
Jacob Elordi
Maybe just don’t utilize it the way these two do. Robbie’s advice for any love you might be pursuing? “Don’t stand outside the window in the middle of the night.” Instead, spend your Valentine’s Day watching “Wuthering Heights” in theaters to relive and re-love this classic.
