You've Been Warned About This 'Wuthering Heights' Disaster, but Emerald Fennell's Flick Is Even Worse

The internet was divided when it was announced that Emerald Fennell, director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, would direct Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Some anticipated the movie's provocative style, while others condemned the classic novel beforehand. Now that the film has been released, the debate has only intensified. And frankly, both sides are partly right.

While Wuthering Heights is visually stunning, as an adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel, it falls short, and as a standalone work, it proves empty, vulgar, and meaningless.

What Is 'Wuthering Heights' About?

Little Catherine Earnshaw lives at Wuthering Heights with her alcoholic father. During one of his drinking bouts, he brings home a homeless boy – a future friend for his daughter. Cathy names him Heathcliff after her deceased brother.

The children grow up together, and over time, their friendship blossoms into something more. However, when her father goes bankrupt, Cathy considers marrying her neighbor, Linton. Feeling betrayed, Heathcliff disappears.

Catherine marries but continues to wait for her true love to return. And one day, Heathcliff returns.

Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' Is Not a Film Adaptation – It Is a Free Fantasy

Adapting Wuthering Heights is difficult because it's a multilayered novel with changing narrators, two generations of characters, and complex psychology.

However, Fennell didn't even try. There's no Mr. Lockwood, no Cathy and Hareton story, and no Hindley. However, there are scenes that Brontë definitely didn't write: Cathy watches a hanged man's erection with Nelly, the servants engage in BDSM, and Heathcliff licks his lover's fingers.

If you imagine that this isn't a film adaptation but rather fan fiction based on the novel, it might be easier to watch. Even then, though, the movie falls short.

'Wuthering Heights' Simply Lacks Significance and Is Too Crude

Emerald Fennell, who balanced the beautiful and the sordid in Saltburn, seems to have forgotten that other layer here. Her Heathcliff is no longer a Byronic hero torn between love and a thirst for revenge – he has become a sexual fetish and a walking collection of pulp cliches.

The seduction scenes are so absurd that they elicit laughter rather than awe. Cathy, played by Margot Robbie, is simply capricious and rude without apparent reason – no actions reveal her inner world.

The movie is so preoccupied with the external side of passion that it forgets the internal. The scene with Isabella, in which the abused victim receives a vague resolution from the director of Promising Young Woman, leaves one completely perplexed.

'Wuthering Heights' Is a Truly Visually Beautiful Movie, but It Is Overly Cold

Without reservation, Wuthering Heights can only be praised for its cinematography – it is truly a feast for the eyes.

From Margot Robbie's red dresses against dark interiors to wall patterns mimicking skin texture to perfectly composed shots of characters frozen in beautiful poses, these images are the stuff of thousands of social media aesthetic compilations.

But beneath this beauty lies emptiness. Despite the vulgarity of the dialogue and hints of intimacy, the movie is surprisingly cold and puritanically modest – there are almost no explicit scenes. Viewers experience neither the depth of the original nor the sensuality that underpins erotic dramas.

What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'Wuthering Heights'?

• Wuthering Heights has 60% from critics and 80% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.

• On IMDb, the movie has a score of 6.3/10.

• On Letterboxd, Wuthering Heights scored 2.9/5.0.

Where to Watch 'Wuthering Heights'?

Wuthering Heights is currently playing in theaters.