Spoiler Warning
“Wuthering Heights” makes a steamy entrance on the silver screen. The movie is based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 gothic novel of the same name and directed by Emerald Fernnell from “Saltburn” and “Promising Young Woman”. In the Feb. 13 release, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star in lead roles, portraying Cathy and Heathcliff respectively. This adaptation leans into sensuality, psychological decay and spectacle, but it does not fully commit to that portrayal. Yet the influence of modern gothic cinema of a similar vein is evident in the film’s attempt to capture Brontë’s moorland tragedy through a provocative lens that favored heightened style over narrative substance.
The opening scene of the film immediately signals the ambition and risks it aims to convey. A public hanging unfolds before an unsettlingly enthralled crowd, as Fennell frames the world as one driven by spectacle, where desire lies beneath the surface restrained and festering. The crowd uses death as a gateway to sex and pleasure. The audience is immediately shown that this will not be a restrained period drama and will go down swinging — or at least try.
The first act is loaded with simmering tension as Heathcliff and Cathy are depicted less as star-crossed lovers and more as emotional and lustful co-conspirators — two individuals bound by shared trauma and a feral attachment to one another. Their connection throughout the film embodies the classic gothic trope of love consuming rather than redeeming.
Visually, the film stuns. Fiery skies and dark candlelit interiors convey emotions of loneliness, depression and rage. Using imagery to depict the characters’ psychological mindsets, with Cathy staring at kneading dough, and Heathcliff’s departure with the sky burning red, it tells the audience their state of mind without outright stating it. The costume design and production immerse the viewer in 19th-century England, grounding the drama in some departments while showing the bombastic nature of wealth throughout. Fennell’s and cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s style ooze throughout the film; sharp framing, charged silences and loads of symbolic imagery feel hypnotic.
As the first act comes to an end with Heathcliff’s departure, the momentum gained begins to unravel. Early promotion and online discourse suggested that the film would delve into the source material’s erotic undertones and fully embrace them. Instead, the opening act leaves the audience teased and wanting more, with the back half of the film comparatively restrained.
The tension between Heathcliff and Cathy is purely situational. Cathy is now married and Heathcliff returns as a wealthy man, leading the film to turn into a generic affair with an old flame, rarely boiling over in ways that would feel daring. While the portrayal of obsession and lust is present, it softens over time into a cliché. The familiarity of well-known themes of obsessive love and tragedy makes the film easy to follow, affecting its impact and leaving the experience adequate but predictable.
The actors’ performances are quite convincing. Robbie brings emotional conviction to Cathy, capturing her ambition as a young woman and her complete collapse.
However, casting choices could divide audience members who are fans of the book, since older Robbie is tasked with portraying 18-year-old Cathy’s youth and vulnerability that define her character. The same can be said about Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff. As the book states, his ambiguous appearance is described as a dark-skinned man or “g—,” which is a catalyst for his “otherness” and being an outcast. Controversy aside, Elordi’s performance exudes brooding confidence. His presence is commanding on screen in the second half, transforming him from a man on a path of “love” into a lustful, obsessive and cruel man.
Gothic romances thrive on elevating the story through themes of betrayal, revenge and deep passion that create mayhem throughout. This adaptation gestures towards those extremes, yet it reins itself in too early.
From Cathy’s emotional and physical decline to Heathcliff’s obsessive nature and grief, the impact of their actions feels inescapable rather than devastating. Audiences can see what is to come from a mile away, as the emotional crescendo does not match the intensity the film promised in its opening act.
Still, “Wuthering Heights” remains quite compelling for the atmosphere it brings. Fennell’s direction shows that she understands the genre’s visuals, even if the script does not push its themes to their limits, as its source material does. This results in a film that will dazzle audiences in the beginning but will gradually have audiences wanting more and feeling teased as the credits roll.
