Movie Review: Wuthering Heights

 

Note: Very Minor Spoilers

Michael's Movie Grade: D+

                                       This adaptation is more Emerald Fennell than Emily Brontë.

Emerald Fennell is definitely a director with her own style. Her movies (of which this is her third) offer maximalist filmmaking and very frank sexuality. This has worked quite well for her previous films, but it hardly fits Emily Brontë's beloved romance novel. Here the source material and the director's style seemed very much at odds with each other. I am no prude (Pedro Almodóvar is one of my favorite filmmakers) but there is simply no reason for Wuthering Heights to be filled with sex scenes. The problem is not that these sex scenes are so excessive or completely frank but rather that they add nothing to this story. Sometimes these sexual scenes even go against what the movie should be about. At one point this movie seems less about two people deeply in love who can't be together and instead two people who simply can't keep their pants on when they are near each other.  Cathy and Heathcliff seem more like they are simply trying to have sex behind Cathy's husband's back then being profoundly in love. Worse is what is done to the character of Isbella. This almost seems like a filmmaker's attempt to explore a very kinky fetish than something that belongs in an adaptation of a literary classic. Joseph and Zillah become just a couple of very horny young people. Again, this kind of overt sexuality may have worked in Fennell's previous films but there is simply no need for it in this type of a story.  

 This movie started off fairly strong during the scenes with the main characters as kids. I actually found myself fairly engaged in these more straightforward and non-sexual scenes. Even the first few scenes with them as adults worked quite well. Then Joseph and Zillah have very kinky sex in a horse stable, and it is all downhill from there. The film becomes completely about sex after that often-substituting character development and depth for smut. In an era where no amount of onscreen sexuality can truly be shocking anymore this smut felt distracting and took away from time which could have been better used developing various characters and story points. 

I will admit Margot Robbie is excellent in the lead role. Despite being an unfortunate case of whitewashing (which somehow can still be happening today) Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff has great chemistry with her. 

This movie could be worse, but I would recommend simply rewatching the 1939 film adaptation of this classic novel instead.