“Wuthering Heights”. The Emerald Fennell version.
by Brandon Norwood
I am not the audience for "Wuthering Heights". I am familiar with Emily Bronte's novel, but not well read. In fact, every literature class I have taken has managed to skip this novel. Walking out of "Wuthering Heights" I understood that this is Emerald Fennell's interpretation of the text.
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Heathcliff (Owen Cooper) is adopted by Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) and brought to the Wuthering Heights estate. Catherine Earnshaw (Charlotte Mellington) takes an immediate liking to the young Heathcliff. Years later, Heathcliff (Jacob Elodri) and Cathy (Margot Robbie) have developed romantic feelings for each other that will decide the fates of not only themselves, but everyone surrounding them.
The quotation marks are there for a reason. This being the upteenth adaptation of Emily Bronte's text, I for one am glad that it's not another dry adaptation unlike Andrea Arnold's 2011 film that bored me to tears. This is stylized to a fault. No subtly here and it works. This is Wuthering Heights for a 2026 audience. So other than Heathcliff being white, I have no bones to pick here. Again, I am not married to the text, and Jacob Elodri gives such a powerful performance that, for me, it was easy to overlook the casting flaw (which in 2026 is distasteful). But in the back of my mind, this is Emerald's version.
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Speaking of Emerald, I was able to read the new foreword of Wuthering Heights. Huge shout out to Rebecca and the team at Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read the forward as well as finally start to read the novel itself. Emerald's foreword is very illuminating. I didn't know Heathcliff killed a dog. So imagine to my surprise to see that Emerald has shown restraint. I love Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, two films that show no restraint whatsoever.
Emerald goes on to say that there are so many different ways to interpret and read the novel. Like many great texts, that holds true. A movie has a very certain interpretation. Sure, people get different things from it whether it's a surface level read or purely a subtext focused read, but a novel is a different beast. That's why I greatly enjoyed what Emerald had done here as it is a complete 180 from Andrea Arnold's adaptation (which she herself has confessed she does not like).
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Emerald starts the foreword of the book with lovers of the novel who aren't fit to go to heaven. I understand completely what she means here as the story itself has some of the most vicious psychological violence I have encountered in a minute. This is a mean story without it being completely nihilistic. It is, after all, a love story first and foremost.
As stated in the latest episode of the podcast, this film is crafted from top to bottom as a big-budget studio epic on a small scale. And in this version the true villain is Nelly (for reason that you'll have to see yourself).
As Emerald notes in her foreword there's a push and pull between pleasure and pain. That's love itself. When it is high, there's nothing better than being connected to another person who is entirely connected to you. And when it's low, heartbreak is almost unbearable. Sometimes even more so than physical pain.
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Emerald says it is impossible for one adaptation to do true justice to the novel as she lists what she left out as she asks the question "What to do with these characters and events?". That is something every responsible filmmaker should be asking themselves. As stated in the latest episode of the podcast, Peter Jackson cut out a lot of The Lord of the Rings while still staying faithful to the text and creating a cinematic achievement. I feel like that's no different here as Emerald has perfectly cast this film, with the chemistry between our two leads, to make one of the hottest and horinest tales of yearning I've seen in a minute. It's so stylized and un-subtle that I appreciate getting hit in the head with a sledgehammer with its style, themes, and imagery.
As I start the journey of finally reading Emily Bronte's 179 year old novel, some things remain true. Love is complicated. Good and bad people don't know how to properly communicate their feelings. If you find love that is not this toxic and that you can have an easy back and forth with, please hold on to it.
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Remember the quotation marks in the title are there for a reason. This is a version of Wuthering Heights. Emerald Fennel's version. It's not THE version of one of the most famous love stories ever told. A toxic, violent love.
7 and half slaps from the Hands of Zeus with lighting bolts.