Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have great chemistry in Emerald Fennell's brash, funny, extravagant spectacle. (...)
Victorian purists, look away. From the moment Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights opens, with a public hanging in which the deceased’s involuntary erection is gazed at by an aroused nun, one thing is clear: do not watch this expecting Emily Brontë. This is Fifty Shades of Grey with windy moors and crinoline. (...)
I wanted more than glamourous despair and frilly dresses, and indeed the strength of the aesthetic threatens occasionally to overpower the raw emotion. Somewhere in this story was a more cohesive exploration of Mr Earnshaw’s complex legacy and the implications of slavish sexual devotion.
It’s so close to perfection but not quite there. Like Cathy, Fennell should look beyond the trappings of lavish design, and reach for greater depth. But, oh when she does, what a sight that will be. (Francesca Steele)
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights captivates with stunning visuals in the Yorkshire Moors and sizzling chemistry between Elordi and Robbie.
Released in time for Valentine’s Day, Emerald Fennell’s third film is being launched among a blitzkrieg of hype, focusing on Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, its highly photogenic stars.
Usually, that is enough to make you wary. But Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights has the substance to back it up. Beautifully costumed, designed, shot and performed, the film is an impeccably made tale of doomed lovers, one that will bring a tear to the eye. (James Mottram)
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi steam up the screen in Emerald Fennell’s loose, lusciously perverse adaptation of Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights.’ (...)
With Linus Sandgren’s breathtaking cinematography – which soars, climbs, and gallops through beautifully desolate, foggy, and craggy locations in Yorkshire -- Anthony Willis’ haunting score, and even the needle drops from Charli XcX (which sound anachronistic on paper but work here) all adding texture and immersion to the proceedings, Emerald Fennell and her cast have devised a truly towering romance in ‘Wuthering Heights.’
Purists may grumble about certain aspects, but this is an adaptation based on a particular vision – a vision that adds a modern edge to a book that, while still universal in its themes, is now nearly two centuries old. Even if you don’t care personally for this extravagant, extraordinary film, it may introduce new generations to the source text – making Cathy and Heathcliff immortal all over again. (Don Kaye)
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi deliver sizzling chemistry in the new Wuthering Heights - but the “kinky, kooky” film will divide audiences. (...)
For a movie continually prepared to roll the dice, it is impressive just how often it makes a collect on the risks taken. (...)
The new Wuthering Heights definitely won’t go do well with the purists. It might even ruin Valentine’s Day for those wanting a little happily-ever-after to go with their chocolates, flowers and heart-shaped balloons.
However, any im-purists out there willing to go with the freaky flow of this strange and mercurial offering will love where it intends to leave them. (Leigh Paatsch)
Metro (4 out of 5 stars);
Wuthering Heights is for the horny girls – we don’t need a man’s opinion. (...)
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is undeniably horny – but it’s also devastatingly emotional, pushing period dramas further into a new era that’s far more unhinged and romantic than Bridgerton. (...)
Some will argue that this Wuthering Heights feels like style over substance because half the book is missing, although it’s not the first adaptation to do this.
Fennell has clearly run rampant with feelings and vibes over obsessive faithfulness – but the wallop of its emotions still has the ability to transport audiences and linger afterwards.
Let us swoon in peace.
Some will love this Wuthering Heights and others will love to hate it, but it’s a triumphant reinterpretation from filmmaker Fennell that’s only stronger and more emotionally devastating for its perversions and dramatic ripping up of a much-loved text. (Tori Brazier)
This sexed-up reimagining is a bonking success. (...)
Robbie is unafraid of playing up Cathy’s brattiness and selfishness, while Elordi – with his spot-on regional accent – has a combustible magnetism that bristles throughout the film. His temper and her jealousy are too hot, too greedy, as Kate Bush might say, and the same applies to the spicy sex scenes that are much edgier than your standard Victorian lit adaptation.
Those are among many liberties taken by Fennell, but like some of the costume and production design choices that kick in once Cathy is ensconced in her new life, they feel like intuitive and intentional decisions. She’s kept like a doll (literally, in one amusingly meta sequence), and the opulent trappings of her new life are sharply juxtaposed with the elemental, instinctive connection she has with Heathcliff. While it’s not the definitive take on the text, it’s a full-blooded and invigorating reimagining that prioritises feelings over faithfulness, to memorable results. (Matt Maytum)
Although it isn’t a literal adaptation of Brontë’s novel (hence the quotation marks) and only covers the first half of the 400-page story, “Wuthering Heights” remains utterly engrossing. You’ll finish the film in need of a dark room, a good cry and a long moment to consider whether you’ve ever truly experienced love.
Yes, it may be slightly longer than necessary. Yes, BookTok audiences may be shocked by how it differs from the source material and how it downplays the novel’s themes of racial and social otherness. And yes, some scenes might make you feel uncomfortable and leave you thinking “what the hell is happening”. But if you’re a romantic, you’ll fall hard for this Gothic tragedy regardless.
So if you’re wondering why I’m suddenly looking at booking a trip to the windswept Yorkshire moor, wearing billowing white shirts to work and listening to “Chains of Love” on repeat, just know that “Wuthering Heights” has become my entire personality. (Lachlan Guertin)
Even though it’s only February and the current awards cycle has yet to be completed, it is hard not to suggest that Wuthering Heights could emerge as a contender in below-the-line categories for next year. While not a surefire thing given the early release date, I do see a world where cinematography, costume design, production design, and score get nominated. From a craft perspective alone, this is a film that deserves to be recognized.
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is a breathtaking and visual work of art. This will be the film that firmly establishes Emerald Fennell as one of the most in-demand filmmakers working today. Audiences, especially those on BookTok, are going to be absolutely floored by what she has done with her bold, fearless, and visually striking adaptation of this beloved story. Wuthering Heights is destined to become a massive hit for Warner Bros and one that is sure to create a whole new generation of fans from audiences all around the world. (Scott Menzel)
Lukewarm
Margot Robbie film is a fevered, astonishing and infuriating mess.
Wuthering Heights is so cinematically beautiful, it’s a shame its Cathy and Heathcliff provoke cries of “OK, enough with your nonsense, you can both go jump off a bridge”. (...)
The chasm between Wuthering Heights’ characters encapsulates why this film is so chaotic. Performances from Oliver and Clunes that are so undeniably magnetic, and then the central romance that ultimately leaves you cold and feeling a bit gross .
Cathy and Heathcliff may represent raw desire, but it’s not love. They are pure id and we’re all presently too tired to indulge that bullsh*t.
But what is love in Wuthering Heights is its paragon of filmmaking craft. Come for the promise of hot romance, stay for the heartstopping production design and superb cinematography. It makes the whole endeavour worthwhile. (Wenlei Ma)
If we take this picture as Fennell intended – a rowdy, sexed-up romance with impossibly gorgeous leads, fetching visuals and an atmospheric score – then it works. If you go looking for anything else, you’ll come away disappointed.
There are, of course, pros and cons to Fennell’s giddy, stripped-back approach. Rarely has a film this shallow looked and, indeed, sounded so spectacular.
The Cooper and Mellington chapters are lovingly crafted, and our own Alison Oliver is superb as Isabella, Edgar’s crazed sibling. Elordi’s central troublemaker is playful and conniving, but never truly dangerous. Robbie’s well-dressed heartbreaker is constantly on the brink of tears.
There have been better Heathcliff-and-Cathy screen pairings – but Fennell’s headliners are the first to look as if they might actually devour one another. (Chris Wasser)
Bad ones
While we’re trudging slowly through this, every 15 minutes we have to be reminded that Fennell is terribly, terribly, terribly shocking. I haven’t read the book, and I’ve no idea whether Fennell has, but I’m going to venture onto a limb here and suggest that the bondage scenes are her invention. Does the original feature Cathy pleasuring herself on the Yorkshire Moors? Again, I’m guessing not. (...)
It’s all very stylish, and the set designers clearly had a whale of a time: Cathy’s home looks like something out of Warhammer 40,000, while Edgar’s mansion has been built out of left-over sets from 1980s pop videos. But it’s style without depth, asking you to believe that true love means dying beautifully. And that being shocking is big and clever. (Robert Hutton)
Torrid sex scenes and Margot Robbie can’t save it from being disappointingly mid. (...)
The film’s shortcomings aren’t just restricted to the plot.
No one was more excited than this critic to hear Fennell had tapped Charli XCX for the soundtrack, and the singer’s collab with the legendary John Cale, House, is a legit banger.
But there’s a disconnect in how the music is incorporated in the film, and you find yourself consciously thinking, “Oh, there’s another Charli XCX track”, rather than being swept up in the atmosphere it provides.
The whole point of getting Fennell to give us her iconoclastic take is to provoke a visceral response - you love it or you hate it.
Unfortunately, Wuthering Heights, for all its pomp and circumstance, doesn’t reach that level of emotion. (Ben O'Shea)
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