On February 13th, the film “Wuthering Heights,” a film inspired by the classic gothic tale of obsession, betrayal and tragedy was adapted onto the big screen. The advertising of the film, casting choices and promotional events were faced with multiple online debates prior to its release. I went into the film with a friend knowing little about what the discussion was, sitting in my cozy little theater seat with no idea what would come my way. Here are my thoughts on the stylistic choices and the narrative plot surrounding “Wuthering Heights.”
My biggest issue that arose with the film was with the narrative plot. The childhood interactions between Cathy and Heathcliff gave me the most feelings of care and love between the characters, even when they made mistakes, such as when Cathy pressured Heathcliff in his reading. This love and care felt lost with the adult versions of the characters. My main issue with this shift was the pacing–we needed more time in Cathy and Heathcliff’s adolescence to understand their adulthood selves.
I also felt like watching Cathy and Heathcliff continue to make toxic decisions with no redemptive arc took away an opportunity for nuance with other characters. I did not feel like anyone cared about anyone because so much focus was placed on making Cathy and Heathcliff seem like they were madly in love–but we did not even get much time with them either, except for a few glimpses into their relationship when they were together through a montage.
I would have also loved to have seen more of Cathy’s relationship with Nelly. There was an opportunity to delve deeper into their subverted friendship that would have made Nelly’s betrayal more plausible than it was. Additionally, the casting choice for Heathcliff also changed a significant portion of the novel and its discussion of race in relation to class. Both of these missed opportunities lost a lot of valuable layers that the film could have explored. They also made me think about whether the director’s had her own concerns in addressing these topics thoughtfully, especially since her inspiration for the film involved her own adolescent interpretations of the film.
If we ignore all the narrative issues I had with the film, the actual cinematography of the film is gorgeous, in a dark and gothic kind of way. The murky landscape of the Yorkshire moors, the bloodred sunset shot with Heathcliff and the rainy contrast to the grandeur of Thrushcross Grange fits into the gothic atmosphere that the original novel encompasses. These choices do a better job of reflecting the characters’ internal turmoil than the characters themselves do because they play with dramatic effects using color, contrast and lighting that both highlight and disrupt what is going on in a given moment.
Overall, I had conflicting feelings about the film’s narrative take and they all culminated into the thought that the film had a lot of missed opportunities. In moments, it felt like the director was afraid to make certain choices because so much of the film was rooted in her own experiences rather than the book’s. Maybe a more balanced focused or a completely different story would have made the film more intriguing than it was let out to be.