The Battle of The Brontës?

El País (Spain) wonders why everybody is talking about Wuhtering Heights and quotes several opinion about the film, like the mostly negative one of the wriiter Mariana Enríquez.

La nueva Cumbres Borrascosas no podría polarizar más. La crítica la ha tachado de superficial, fría y extravagante. El público, en cambio, ha acudido en masa para pasar el fin de semana de San Valentín sufriendo con los amores de Catherine y Heathcliff, interpretados por Margot Robbie y Jacob Elordi. En redes triunfan los vídeos de los fans recreando el cartel de la película para entregarse a los brazos de Elordi o grabando sus reacciones y sus lágrimas en los cines. Lengüetazos, suspiros y “apología blanca”: así son las reacciones más extremas que ha generado la película. (...)

La escritora argentina Mariana Enriquez, autora de obras como Nuestra parte de noche (Anagrama, 2019), se asomó a su perfil de Instagram para dedicar tres elaborados posts en los que iba desmenuzado uno a uno los pecados de la película. “Que tonta esta chica si le quedó este melodrama mal hecho y nada más de su fantasía de origen”, escribía en relación al acercamiento juvenil de Fennell. (Lucas Barquero) (Translation)

The Economist tries to revive the "Battle of the Brontës". You know Jane Eyre vs Wuthering Heights:

Welcome back to our bonus edition of Plot Twist, focusing on history. This month we are pondering the literary kind. The release of a new film adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” has reignited an argument that has been raging since the 1840s: is Emily Brontë’s novel better or worse than “Jane Eyre”, written by her sister Charlotte?

The two books have plenty in common: for starters, they both feature headstrong female characters entangled in complicated romances with brooding antiheroes. Yet “Wuthering Heights” is generally considered to be grittier and more complex. When literary critics rank the best books of all time, Emily’s story is often higher up the list than Charlotte’s. (Rachel Lloyd)

The Independent looks into socials and finds Brontë X-perts or TikTokers who qualify as Brontê "superfans". So pure and immaculate that it will never succumb to such iniquity as Emerald Fennell's film:

 Since the film’s racy first trailer dropped in September, literary fans have flocked to message boards and TikTok groups with their thoughts. While some were “open” to Fennell’s hyper-sexualised interpretation, others – including BookTok influencer Kylee Smith – urged her to change the film’s title.

“I think this conversation wouldn’t be happening if she just called the movie something else,” Smith, 30, tells The Independent. “I would probably see a movie that had Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in beautiful outfits on the moors.”

The Ohio-based creative, who’s been a Wuthering Heights enthusiast since her teens, is one of the book fans who won’t be watching the film.

“I have no intention to see it in [cinemas],” she says. “With the casting decisions she’s made, I’m not going to waste my time and spend the money. I’d rather re-read the book – which is what I’m doing.” (Lauren Morris)

Another of these pure (sad) souls argues that not every adaptation of a book is "licit". We guess the judge of what is licit and what is illicit should be the chorus of pure (sad) souls. They know better. Read about this epitome of modesty in Infobae.

Maya Phillips in The New York Times looks at how six different Wuthering Heights versions have depicted passion:

In the 179 years since Brontë’s Gothic classic was published, Heathcliff and Cathy (as he calls her), have been resurrected in different forms. While many of the earlier adaptations focused on the social constraints that doomed the couple, contemporary adaptations have moved more toward fetishizing the destructive romance. These six versions (completists can watch many, many more) — spanning the past 85 years — show the wild swings in passion, temperament and power dynamics.

1939: Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon as Troubled Sophisticates

1958: Richard Burton and Rosemary Harris as Histrionic Lovers

1967: Ian McShane and Angela Scoular as Social Antipodes

1992: Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as Ruined Romantics

2009: Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley as Toxic Exes

2026: Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie as Shallow Sensualists

Now, some more reviews of the film:

Perhaps we shouldn’t have expected anything more from socialite-turned-filmmaker Fennell. She has a directorial track record of superficial films that prefer to shock rather than transport the viewer. In many ways, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is symptomatic of our times – a cold, mean take on true love. This cuts against the grain of Brontë’s original. Even in their nastiest, cruellest moments (of which there are many), the reader is left in no doubt that Cathy and Healthcliff love one another. As Heathcliff tells Cathy after her death:

‘Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul.’

Fennell has massacred one of literature’s most passionate and tragic love stories. It is a cynical adaptation for our silly times. Watch at your peril. (Ella Whelan in Spiked)

Fennell’s final tableaus in “Wuthering Heights” were artful, leaving the audience with Heathcliff lying nearly on top of Catherine’s limp body. Moments before, she laid in pure white sheets stained with crimson — which resemble a vagina if you're watching astutely— as a continuation of Fennell’s heavy-handed sexual metaphors. Fennell’s commentary on erotic expression and obsession is well done, but her comparisons are almost suffocating. The film itself is an intricate and beautiful work, certainly Fennell’s best. I just wish it had not been “Wuthering Heights.” (Ellie Fivas in The Emory Wheel)

Cabe la posibilidad de que, para aquel espectador que se acerque a este universo por primera vez y sin el bagaje del referente literario, la propuesta de Fennell resulte una experiencia sumamente atractiva, funcionando como puerta de entrada a un clásico que aquí se torna accesible. Sin embargo, para quien acuda buscando la arquitectura completa de la venganza y el eco de ese viento cruel que azota las cumbres, la sensación de vacío parece inevitable. Fennell ha preferido romantizar una trama definida originalmente por su aridez y su violencia moral, simplificando la cronología en favor de una narrativa más convencional y estilizada. Al tomar este camino, se corre el riesgo de olvidar que el verdadero poder de la prosa de Brontë no residía en lo que se podía capturar con la cámara, sino en aquello que era demasiado terrible y salvaje para ser mostrado. (Julia Espinel in 35 milímetros) (Translation)

En definitiva, esta versión de Cumbres Borrascosas se posiciona como uno de los estrenos más destacados de la temporada. Es una invitación a redescubrir un clásico desde una perspectiva audaz, que no teme mostrar la imposibilidad de redención de sus protagonistas y que reafirma por qué la historia de Catherine y Heathcliff sigue siendo un espejo inquietante de la condición humana. (Susana Gutiérrez in El Diario) (Translation)

 As a general rule, I don’t like getting this personal in film reviews, but it’s impossible to separate Fennell the person from “Wuthering Heights” the movie. Auteur theory is a double-edged sword, I suppose. It’s great when you have a real vision. It cuts deep when you don’t. Every choice in this movie is the wrong one. And the worst thing of all? It’s not even an interesting failure. It’s boring. And it will be my absolute delight to forget that it exists. (Aly Caviness in Midwest Film Journal)

 Beyond the leads, the supporting cast adds unexpected layers of intrigue and amusement. Alison Oliver (another Saltburn alum) is hilarious as Isabella Linton, bringing both wit and agency to a character often sidelined in adaptations. Not enough people are talking about Hong Chau’s resonant performance as Nelly Dean, who is quietly magnetic and grounds the chaos of both households with precision. Shazad Latif’s Edgar Linton is subtle and restrained, a necessary counterpoint to the volatility of Cathy and Heathcliff. Each performance is committed and idiosyncratic, echoing Fennell’s approach to storytelling more broadly. 

And none of the performances would land without Fennell’s clear vision and her particular brand of fearlessness. “The thing that I’ve learned is really important to me is making everyone feel safe enough to do something bad,” she noted in the same BFI Southbank talk. “So I’m really only interested in something if it’s just on the edge—and sometimes over the edge—of tasteless or silly or overblown.” Fennell is a high-art offshoot of a John Waters ethos. She’s a sick freak, and I like it. 

Judging from the reviews and think pieces thus far, she’s succeeded on edge-teetering at the very least. Fennell’s daringly indulgent style permeates every frame, and it’s a world worth the time. (Melanie Robinson in Flood Magazine)

 When the movie ended, I felt incredibly out of place as I looked around and saw everyone sobbing at the death of Catherine. Because of her insane cruelty throughout the film, I felt so disconnected from her character. If anything, I felt her death was inevitable and, in some ways, deserved. The film had been foreshadowing her death from the beginning, from the blood-red hallway walls of Edgar’s mansion to Catherine’s own red and black dresses. I was surprised her death hadn’t come sooner, and that she didn’t die in some horrific way because of the frequent mention of hanging at the beginning of the film. (Grace Chaves in The Point)

 Fennell’s shift to sex reflects other shifts in the novel's moral focus, as many of its underlying moral themes are absent. (John M. Grondelski in The Catholic World Report)

 Elordi’s Heathcliff, complete with a roguish ‘80s pirate earring, is more than just a handsome brooder. He carries the weight of a boy who was told he was only a servant, unworthy of the girl who is his entire world. Robbie’s Cathy is a force of nature, luminous and dangerous, torn between the wild freedom Heathcliff represents and the comfort offered by the wealthy Mr. Linton (Shazad Latif). Her inf amous declaration that marrying Heathcliff would “degrade her” lands with the force of a physical blow, setting their destinies in motion. (Preston Barta in Westworld)

GeoTV mentions how Jennifer Aniston has shared on her IG a hilarious 'Friends' scene to review 'Wuthering Heights.' LAD Bible thinks that Jacob Elordi's accent ruins the film. The Guardian shares some of the readers' opinions of the film. The Yorkshireman visits Top Withens. Publishers Weekly comments that book clubs are swooning over Wuthering Heights 2026.