“Wuthering Heights” genuinely scared me
“I will follow you like a dog to the end of the world,” the notorious line from the newest film adaptation, “Wuthering Heights,” still lives rent free in my mind. There is no doubt that moral ambiguity has captured audiences’ attention for thousands of years, and let me tell you, my attention was caught. “Wuthering Heights,” adapted by “Saltburn” writer-director Emerald Fennell, has created one of the most deconstructed, romanticized and aesthetically unique adaptations of a Victorian classic I have ever seen or heard of. Emily Brontë’s 18th-century novel follows the traumatic and generationally destructive relationship between Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi); a cautionary tale revolving the prolonged romance throughout the anti-hero’s lives with and without each other.
Sitting down in the theatre shoulder to shoulder with strangers while witnessing the extreme push and pull between Elordi and Robbie, the visual symbolism layered in each shot and the complex dynamics between the characters, quite literally oozing off the screen, was a wild experience to say the least. And I unfortunately loved every second of it.
Each scene is so intently shot that there are moments throughout the film where you truly feel a part of Catherine and Heathcliff’s love affair. In the latter half of the film, when Catherine is living with her arranged husband, Mr. Linton, in Thrushcross Grange, the mansion feels alive. The floors are filled with blood, the walls made of Catherine’s skin and a fireplace of marble hands immerses the audience into a fantastical and deranged version of the 18th-century Victorian era, which I really enjoyed.
Now, there is a reason why I say I “unfortunately” loved the movie. As with most adaptations, especially from a novel as groundbreaking and controversial as “Wuthering Heights” is, there is backlash. Fennell has been incredibly outspoken about her reasoning for casting Heathcliff as a white character opposed to the original “Wuthering Heights”, which depicts Heathcliff as a person of color, centered around the majority of his struggles with Catherine while continuously being outcast from society. In an interview with “The Guardian”, Fennell stated Elordi “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book I had read,” defending her argument by stating it is her own personal artistic interpretation of the first half of the novel. “Wuthering Heights” is not “Wuthering Heights” without Heathcliff’s character staying true to the original, but as someone who enjoys the book, and this adaptation, it’s safe to say these are two entirely different artistic forms and should be separated from one another, both holding substance for different reasons.
If you are looking to watch a historically accurate, book-accurate and sane adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” then this is not the film for you. This film is not a romance, though it has romantic elements; it is a disturbing, doomed relationship built from control, social class and depravity that is told from an aggressive, surrealist melodramatic lens. Above all else, it is worth a chance.
