**
Writer-director Emerald Fennell has followed-up her provocative, Saltburn (2023 ), which despite its iterative social-class storyline, became a cultural talking point, with an adaptation of a signature work of English literature – Wuthering Heights.
Fennell has previously won an Oscar for Promising Young Woman (2020 ), and this latest version of Wuthering Heights has a plethora of elements working in its favour.
Casting Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the protagonists benefits the film as both actors are at the apices of their careers.
Robbie is riding high after the gargantuan success of the commercial hit, Barbie (2023 ) and Elordi, who recently earned a first Oscar nomination for his transformational performance as Frankenstein’s monster in Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of the classic, is now a bona fide, A-list actor.
Featuring a soundtrack from Charli xcx, this film could not be any more culturally relevant. Unfortunately, all these commercially friendly elements mesh into an unexpectedly stale adaptation.
After Catherine’s father takes in a boy of her age off the streets into their Wuthering Heights estate, she is instantly enamored, naming him Heathcliff. From childhood to young adulthood, they are inseparable, but once Catherine receives a lucrative marriage proposal and begins to consider her future viz her family’s dire financial situation, she must reckon with her romantic feelings for Heathcliff.
Emerald Fennell’s vision for this story ultimately strips away possibly the most crucial aspect of the novel: the gothic atmosphere. The oppressive landscape and the sense of melancholy desolation which pervades the characters is non-existent. Instead, the production design is flashy and ornate.
Nearly every shot implies a desperate attempt to make it as beautiful and screenshot-worthy as possible, including the castle’s striking colour palette, glamorous jewellery and dresses, and the lighting and framing of the two main actors.
Despite the shiny surfaces, the tone is serious; expecting sympathy for this tale of impossible love and longing. When both characters are as attractive as they are, act as selfishly as they do, and just have the good fortune of becoming wealthy, it is unreasonable to expect us to have much sympathy.
Many great romance films work because the characters look and act somewhat like us. They are not too detached from reality: think of When Harry Met Sally (1989 ), Sleepless in Seattle (1992 ), and Enough Said (2014 ). That does not apply here.
The film presumes you will marvel at the aesthetics of its two actors, and become immersed in their love affair. It might work for some, but not everyone. In fact, the best part of the film is probably Alison Oliver’s performance as Catherine’s animated sister-in-law. Regardless of her use as comic-relief, there are imperfections and oddities to her character that are fascinating, and I was drawn more to her as a result.
Ultimately, this film wants to be taken seriously, but everything about the movie sprints in the other direction.
It was promoted as the racy version of Wuthering Heights, and even that fails. There is no real heat between the two leads and, strangely, it seems like the film forgot how it was to be marketed; cramming in some raunchy scenes to hold up its end of the bargain. The music has no emotional impact, and the film does not earn the emotional response it strives for.
What Fennell does next will be fascinating, because her first three films seemed designed to ruffle feathers, with mixed results. I also think Robbie would benefit from a more subdued film role where she can showcase her acting range and prowess.
2 / 5 stars
In Galway cinemas now
