Kaleidoscope Film Review presents its latest on MRC’s, Lucky Chap Entertainment’s, Lie Still’s, & Warner Bros. Pictures production of Wuthering Heights.  Written & directed by Emerald Fennel, the film stars Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Shazad Latif, Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, & Martin Clunes and is based on Emily Bronte’s classic novel of the same name.  Rated ‘R’, it has a running time of 136 minutes. 

The movie opens with a somewhat disturbing scene of a man being hanged in a public square.  The man’s profound suffering & his obvious, visible erection on display as he writhes on the noose, portends a modern, soft-core ‘porn’ retelling of Bronte’s tale of star-crossed lovers.  As the crowd watches, they, Catherine Earnshaw (Robbie), and Catherine’s companion Nelly (Chau) are driven into a rapturous turmoil.  This opening scene is followed by Catherine’s dad, Mr. Earnshaw (Clunes), returning to his Gothic, mist-covered estate, Wuthering Heights.  He is accompanied by a young boy, (Elordi), whom Earnshaw ‘rescued’ from the streets of Liverpool.  In line with Earnshaw’s alcoholism & seeming decadence, he advises Catherine that the boy will be her ‘pet’.  Catherine names the boy Heathcliff as an homage to her late brother; as they grow older, they become inseparable.  Act I ends when, after the two are trapped in the rain on one of their sojourns, they return late to the estate & Earnshaw’s birthday.  Heathcliff assumes the full blame for their tardiness, & Earnshaw proceeds to whip Heathcliff mercilessly, leaving permanent scars on the boy’s back. 

Writer/director Fennell has had a meteoric career.  After acting in various projects from 2011-2019, she made an auspicious debut when she wrote & directed her first film, the thriller Promising Young Woman, starring Carey Mulligan.  The film won her the Oscar for 2020’s Best Original Screenplay & Oscar nominations for Best Picture & Best Director.  She next wrote and directed the psychological thriller, 2023’s Saltburn.  Both of the above films had dark, underlying sexual overtones—overtones that are laced throughout Heights’ 2nd & 3rd acts.  Fennell has sharp talent & imagination.  However, this critic is unsure of how her use of the many overt sexual scenes that pervade this retelling enhances the novel’s/film’s themes.  Perhaps, I am mistaken.  The box office receipts will help tell the story.  Robbie enhances her already illustrious career with this role.  One feels her hesitations, fears, desires, inner smoldering, & other actions in a very powerful & insightful performance.  Elordi has a less complex role.  In a way, he is once again the Frankenstein creature who is an outsider to the rest of the world.  He desires to be understood but can only really connect with others in a feral, carnal way—at least in Fennell’s world.  Chau has a more one-dimensional personage as the dutiful servant/friend who serves first Catherine, then Earnshaw, & finally, Edgar Linton (Latif), never fully realizing a life of her own. Linus Sandgren’s cinematography has an appropriate smoky, sensuous look as most of the film’s action takes place on the Moors.  He captures what Bronte must have seen as she looked endlessly from her window at the bleak scenes around her while writing the novel.  Anthony Willis’ score is appropriate though hardly memorable.  Charlie XCX’s songs are perfunctory at best. 

I give Wuthering Heights 7 out of 10 nuggets.  It is a modern take on a timeless, archetypal tale but adds too much that should be left to the imagination. Check out the dated but more relatable 1939 film with Merle Oberon & Lawrence Olivier.