Wuthering Heights

🌟🌟

Okay, I’ve seen it.

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has divided audiences, with some adoring this new take on Brontë’s seminal novel while others despise the adaptation, believing Miss Brontë would be appalled by this interpretation of her work. I fear I may lean toward the latter.

Ironically, for a film that features some of the most gorgeous set and costume design I’ve seen in recent cinema, it lacks substance. We follow Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) as they try to convince us we’re watching a love story for the ages, when the script couldn’t care less about these characters, constantly having them act in increasingly petulant and irritating ways. What feels sweet in the flashback sequences grows tiresome two hours into the film, making me long to hear the final Charli XCX song as the credits start to roll.

The characters in Wuthering Heights are meant to reflect the worst aspects of humanity. However, every single character, bar Cathy, is seemingly justified in their actions. Even Heathcliff, at his worst, explicitly states what he is going to do and seemingly resents the actions he’s performing. Cathy, on the other hand, might be the most annoyingly and unrelentingly horrible character I’ve had to bear witness to, actually making my skin crawl by the end of the film.

With stunning sets, rich costumes, and some genuinely strong direction from Fennell, the film, overall, is a bore, with irritating characters populating the screen and getting in the way of far more interesting things behind them.

I'm not angry, I’m. disappointed. I so desperately wanted Wuthering Heights to be as good as it looks.