Writer/director Emerald Fennell’s creatively interpreted version of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights soars with creative delights and an assortment of artistic flourishes, but it may leave some viewers befuddled at whether the whole affair was worth the trouble in the first place.
Although most may be familiar with the story, Brontë’s novel follows the unfortunate love that an orphaned boy named Heathcliff feels for Catherine Earnshaw, a girl born into a wealthy 18th-century England family. Then, when the two are considerably older – Cathy (now played by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (now portrayed by Jacob Elordi) – that loves blossoms between the two until circumstances pull the two apart and Heathcliff heads off to find his fortune and Cathy resigns herself to a marriage with a wealthy neighbor to ensure her family’s position and rank are maintained. Then, when Heathcliff returns to find Cathy wedded to Edgar (Shazad Latif), the two begin a torrid affair that threatens to destroy the lives of everyone involved.
Fennell’s approach to the story is an admirable one. The film is a stylized wonder at times and the imagery utilizing the color red throughout the final third act is something to behold. The wonderous art direction of Caroline Barclay is brilliantly captured by cinematographer Linus Sandgren. But, the end result is a gorgeous and stylistic visual feast that languishes in a meandering narrative set adrift to fend for itself.
One of the issues at play here is that the story is bereft of even one character that proves remotely likable or sympathetic. They are all played with drastically heightened faults or social foibles that suggest whatever bad tidings coming their way are well deserved.
Neither Heathcliff nor Cathy are given any opportunity to explain why they are the way they are in any tangible or expressive way, they simply are either angry or jealous or petty, the list goes on. The same is true for other characters and this fact makes it hard to manifest any emotional connection to any of the players, rather it becomes easier to hope that everyone is delivered their just deserts by the end of the rather cumbersome tale.
Margot Robbie in “Wuthering Heights.” Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. – © Warner Bros.
Although Robbie and Elordi do their best to give these petulant characters some semblance of humanity, it simply never materializes and the end result is that there is no reason to see the story through to the end other than to be finished with the overall ordeal itself.
The shortcomings of a plodding approach to the story makes Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights a bit of bore, but the lavish cinematography and often splendid visuals are enough to maintain interest even after the fate of the characters appears to be a forgone conclusion.
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| Producer: | Emerald Fennell, Margot Robbie, Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley |
| Release Date: | February 13, 2026 |
| Running Time: | 136 minutes |
| Starring: | Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell |
| Writer: | Emerald Fennell |
| MPAA Rating: | R (for sexual content, some violent content and language) |
| Director: | Emerald Fennell |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| External Info: | Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / X (TWITTER) / #wutheringheightsmovie |
