This reviewer studied English Literature in university; Emily Bronte’s only novel was required reading.
Year 12 VCE students obliged to read Wuthering Heights shouldn’t shortcut and depend upon this adaptation as a clear-cut book to screen.
Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights fails in many aspects.
For one, this Valentine Day movie version is only half of the book.
Forsaking the core principles of this amazing story, it is an erroneous adaptation of Bronte’s novel.
Not only did she direct this love story, she wrote the screenplay, poorly.
Fennel neither understood the subtleties of the characters nor the socio-cultural factors that motivated them.
No intricacies of character or moral depths remain, and she gave up before finishing Bronte’s novel.
The cinema’s audience was mostly women.
An observation: many laughed or tittered when there was nothing intended as funny.
Giggles erupted from staging, character dialogue, facial expression.
Therein is the strong suggestion Fennel didn’t get it right.
Many adaptations for the screen of Bronte’s novel have been made.
If you want a faithful and accurate adaptation which covers the full, complex plot, find the 1978 BBC mini-series and enjoy an eternally romantic love story between Heathcliff and Catherine.
Or go to the library and borrow the book.
Wuthering Heights, written in 1847 and published under the masculine pseudonym Ellis Bell to avoid prejudice against female authors, is a highly imaginative story of violence and revenge.
Bronte explains how abuse can lead to vengeful behaviour when forgiveness is absent, thus resulting in a cycle of violence to alleviate one’s own pain.
Unfortunate for current viewers of this misguided movie, all of that moral substance is avoided, ignored, or just plain missing.
Moral ambiguities left in limbo, obsessive passion is replaced with blank stares and hollow line readings, with fractured work suitable only as rehearsal of a badly produced school play.
It’s a money grab boasting technical achievement only in Linus Sandgren’s cinematography, its costumes, songs and score.
The songs really are quite lovely.
“Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same,” is the most famous quote, chapter nine in the novel.
It is Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) expressing her deepest feelings for Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) to the housekeeper Nelly Dean (Hong Chau).
Heathcliff’s station leads to Catherine marrying Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), the wealthy, refined, and gentle master of Thrushcross Grange, and a weak-willed foil to the passionate, brooding Heathcliff.
Her father Hindley Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) is delighted his daughter is looked after, set up for life, so to speak, as his own life tumbles from fortune to alcoholic poverty.
All characters in Wuthering Heights are white Yorkshire locals, except for Healthcliff.
In the original novel he’s not intended to be a white, English gentleman.
Others call him a “gypsy” (Romani) or a “dark-skinned child with black hair and black eyes.”
However, most screen adaptations have Heathcliff played by white-skinned north Europeans.
Young Heathcliff (Owen Cooper) is found by Mr Earnshaw in Liverpool, a major port in the 18th century slave trade, leading some interpreters to believe he was meant to be of mixed-race, of Black descent, or South Asian.
Owen Cooper, though doing a plausible job as young Heathcliff, doesn’t match Bronte’s description.
Mr Earnshaw brings the boy home to young daughter Cathy (Charlotte Mellington) to be her pet, a lowly chores and stable servant.
Mr Earnshaw names him Heathcliff for his son who died in childhood, not named by the movie’s Cathy.
A Christian name and a surname, it symbolised his status as an outsider.
“Heath near a cliff” reflected his wild character.
It is politically correct nowadays to cast actors of ethnic origin in roles traditionally played by Caucasians.
This being Emily Bronte’s novel, Kharmel Cochran’s casting an Asian and a Pakistani in major roles goes against Bronte’s book, credible performances they are.
Torrid love scenes were taboo in the Victorian era.
However, the novel is deeply emotional and features kissing, as when Heathcliff returns from gainful adventure and kisses Catherine passionately.
Sexual activity is only implied, not blatantly lustful as in the film, via marriage and reproduction.
Emerald Fennel gained attention for her work in period pictures.
She should have known better when adapting and directing this inferior version of Wuthering Heights.
