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Review: “Wuthering Heights” is a Gorgeous Reimagining with Unredeemable Protagonists that Make It Impossible to Empathize with Its Tragic Love Story
February 12, 2026Ben MK
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Widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of English literature ever written, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is a generational tale of doomed romance that has intrigued filmmakers for decades. Ever since the first feature-length adaptation in 1920, there have been some three dozen films and television miniseries based on Brontë's 1847 gothic novel, not to mention countless musical, stage, and even radio productions. However, much like J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the story has long been considered unfilmable; and so, while many an adaptation has tried, only a handful have come close to capturing the true essence of Brontë's sweeping saga. Enter Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights," which comes more than a century since Hollywood first took on the unfathomable task of bringing Brontë's iconic book to the big screen. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, this latest reimagination of the classic literary tale revolves around Catherine (Robbie) and Heathcliff (Elordi), two people whose lives have been irrevocably intertwined ever since they first set eyes on each other as children. The only daughter of the widower Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes), a mean-spirited alcoholic who, ironically, considers himself something of a humanitarian, Cathy grew up in the centuries-old family home at Wuthering Heights, a once-grand-but-now-ramshackle farm house situated on the Yorkshire Moors in England. But when her father shocks both her and the help one day by arriving home with a questionable new charity case — a boy roughly her age that Cathy nicknames Heathcliff, in honor of her dead brother — it sets into motion a decades-long psychological obsession that will ultimately threaten to consume them both. An illiterate young man rescued from his own abusive father, Heathcliff becomes something of a sibling to Cathy, even though Mr. Earnshaw treats him like just another one of the servants under his employ. So, when they get older and Cathy starts to entertain the idea of wooing the wealthy Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), an aristocrat who has recently purchased a neighboring property across the moors, where he lives with his eccentric sister, Isabella (Alison Oliver), it stirs up a mix of conflict and emotions between Cathy and Heathcliff. The result makes for a powder keg of psychological and sexual tension, as the pair struggle to rein in their lust for one another. However, things really start to spiral out of control after Cathy marries Edgar, leading Heathcliff to disappear for five years, only to return inexplicably rich and with a thirst for revenge on Cathy for breaking his heart. Will he and Cathy be able to turn their unspoken feelings for one another into something meaningful? Or will they instead give in to their childish ways, choosing torment and self-destruction over love? Suffice to say, anyone who's familiar with the source material will know the answer to that question. Nonetheless, in spite of that simple fact, Fennell, who also penned the screenplay, proves that she has a few surprises up her sleeves, even for the most ardent fan of Brontë's novel. Whether it's the costumes and production design, which blur the line between authentic period piece and modern-day reimagining, or the movie's amped-up sexual themes, which border on the pornographic, the Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director isn't shy about putting her own stylistic stamp on this 2026 version of Wuthering Heights and distilling the story down to its core relationship. In doing so, unfortunately, she seems to have also overlooked one of the most crucial tenets of cinema, and storytelling in general — which is that audiences can't be expected to root for a film's protagonists if those protagonists are completely despicable and without any merit of their own. Of course, that's not to say that "Wuthering Heights" isn't gorgeous to behold, or that Robbie and Elordi don't make for a handsome on-screen couple. As characters themselves, on the other hand, these versions of Cathy and Heathcliff utterly lack the charm and charisma necessary to engage moviegoers and make them truly empathize with them. And so, while this movie might still appeal to those viewers who get a kick out of watching terrible people do terrible things to each other, as a tragic love story, there's really nothing here that will genuinely convince audiences that these characters are worthy of one iota of sympathy. "Wuthering Heights" releases February 13th, 2025 from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of R for sexual content, some violent content and language. Its runtime is 2 hrs. 16 min. |
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