Table of Contents
Let's begin with some reviews, per Letterboxd:
"emily brontë died of tuberculosis 177 years ago yet this adaptation is still the worst thing that has ever happened to her." - allain
"i’m gonna jump from a wuthering height." - timtamtitus
"Emerald Fennell to film is what Colleen Hoover is to literature." - bk
"this is what happens when you let people who were born to make aesthetic pinterest boards direct movies." - mak
And my personal favorite:
"I should have been Wuthering High to watch this movie." Anonymous
In 1847, 27 year old Emily Bronte published the novel Wuthering Heights. The book follows the rise of an embittered outsider, Heathcliff, whose cruelty and quest for revenge devastate two families across generations on the Yorkshire moors. Networks have taken this classical story and adapted it over and over again into countless films and television series’s. And, in modern hollywood fashion, what better to do than run it back one more time? Opening Valentine's weekend is Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" – the quotation marks were intentional. The newest adaptation stars current Academy Award nominee Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and acclaimed star Margot Robbie as Cathy.
All press is good press, but this release has been swarmed with backlash from die-hard Bronte Sister fans. If you'd like to find out why, or maybe you're just here for the gossip, keep reading...
If you don't spend your free time diving into gothic books from the 1800's, I'll give you some background here. One main theme of this novel is isolation. Heathcliff is consistently percieved as a social pariah. In the novel, he’s repeatedly described as “dark,” “gypsy,” or “Lascar,” and his origins are unknown. If you read my last article about Bridgerton, you'd know I love a good period piece. Contrary, however, to that show, the characters in "Wuthering Heights" are much less open to racial equality amongst their peers. In the novel Heathcliff is the victim of much cruelty and judgement due to people not being comfortable with his dark skinned, racial ambiguity. It is the catalyst for the majority of the plot: Cathrine not marrying him, Hindley being evil to him, and all in all fueling his obsession with control and power. This isn't a case like The Little Mermaid 2023, black mermaids didn't affect the plot one bit. But in this film, skin color has a major affect on the plot and setting.
You might be able to foresee where the rest of this point is going. If you haven't seen Euphoria (ie. Jacob Elordi's bare white a**) – he's a pretty caucasian guy. There seems to be a consensus that critics are not commenting on Elordi's work as an actor, rather griping at the director and casting for hiring him to play an ethnic character. Heathcliff is from Liverpool, a town with deep connection to the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, which is often brought up when talking about the depth of Heathcliff's origins. In summary, Heathcliff's skin color is an integral part of the story and isn't something that fans of the book are willing to overlook – not even for 6 foot 5, Jacob Elordi.
The director, Emerald Fennell, has said many times on this press tour that "This film is much more of a romance than people are expecting"...
Many fans of the book have serious gripes with the way this movie is being marketed as the steamy romance of the century. Being that the leads cast are the #1 draft pick for attractive actors AND the film is being released for Valentine's weekend.
To her credit, the book is sometimes labeled as a romance, meaning it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to find it in the "Down Bad" section of Barnes & Noble. And, it's true that Heathcliff and Cathrine have a passionate/obsessive relationship. However, the key point of the story is that their relationship is toxic, destructive, and rooted in revenge. This book would be much better categorized as a gothic tragedy about social alienation and obsession.
Once again, to the point of the film's team, they have been super clear that this is a personal adaptation. They even went as far to put quotation marks in the actual title and poster marketing it as "Wuthering Heights". This was intended to recognize that there are discrepancies between the book and the film and this was a new take. However, people are asking: does this particular adaptation simply explore the book in a new light, or does it remove the novel of it's substance and 'ahead of it's time' commentary about society?
"I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights. It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it that I remembered reading-that isn't quite real. And there's a version that I wanted stuff to happen that never happened. And so it is Wuthering Heights and it isn't." - Fennel
Who's right and wrong here, only time and the box office will tell. What do I know, I'm not an 18th century writer or an Oscar winning director (yet!)
"Wuthering Heights" released Friday the 13th (which may be a bit telling). So I encourage everyone to go see it for themselves, if nothing else, for a good laugh when the "I think I'm gonna die in this house" song comes on in the film.
