Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” was released in theaters on February 13th of this year. While fans expected a glamorous and modern retelling of Emily Brontë’s classic Wuthering Heights, many believe that the movie felt short in just about every way.
First of all, many believe that the choice to release the film a day before Valentine’s Day was the first sign that director Emerald Fennell did not fully grasp the main themes of the story. Moviegoers typically like to watch heartwarming and endearing movies on Valentine’s Day, so the release of “Wuthering Heights” confused many who were familiar with the classic novel, as the themes of the story are quite grim in nature. Some fans compared the tone-deafness of the release date to the way that the 2024 film “It Ends With Us” was marketed as a swoonworthy love story, while the novel explores serious themes such as emotional abuse and domestic violence.
Before the movie was even released, the choice to cast Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the film’s main characters caused many fans of the classic novel to become wary about the film itself. First of all, the character of Heathcliff in the original novel was racially ambiguous, which contributes a large deal to the plot. A large portion of the story focuses on Heathcliff’s rage and jealousy as a character and the issues that he encounters with other characters, which often are a result of racial stereotypes and classist attitudes. Because of this, many critics view Emerald Fennell’s casting of Jacob Elordi as tone-deaf and oblivious to the key themes of the story. Further, the advertising of “Wuthering Heights,” painted the film as a romantic love story, in part due to the fact that Jacob Elordi gained attention from his prior roles as a modern heartthrob in movies such as “Saltburn” and “Priscilla.” While the character of Heathcliff is supposed to be mysterious, brooding, and at times abusive, the choice to cast Jacob Elordi in this role represents a departure from core motifs of the novel.
In addition to casting controversy, the film also suffered from multiple plot issues. For one, the movie only covers content from the first half of the novel, which many viewers did not know going into the movie. Many viewers thought that the ending of the movie was very abrupt and sudden due to the fact that it only covered half of the novel, which would not have been made clear if the viewer hadn’t read the novel beforehand. Fennell has been cited to say that she will not make a sequel to her film, although her choice of ending allows her the freedom to make a sequel in the future if she so chooses.
Lastly, Fennell chose to significantly increase the sexual content of the movie, which has essentially become a hallmark of an Emerald Fennell film. Longtime fans of the novel view this as a marketing tactic to generate attention, a ploy that ultimately detracts from the novel’s psychological and emotional severity. Although I have yet to see the movie, knowing how controversial it has been since its release exactly one week ago has made me more inclined to watch it myself.