Good ones
Was I entertained? Yes, actually. I didn’t long to leave my seat, and even found myself silently giggling over scenes that were clearly Elordi fanservice. “Was this in the book?’” a friend I watched it with (who actually has read the book) asked jokingly. No, reader, Heathcliff doesn’t have steamy sex with Catherine in the novel, nor does he take off his shirt to reveal glistening pecs and chest hair (spoiler alert). I suppose Fennell, and quite a few readers, wished he did, and that’s the crazy fantasy this film tries to bring forth. It’s a fairly good time at the movies if you show up with zero expectations beyond wanting to be occupied for a couple of hours. I just wish Fennell had ditched the title entirely and leaned into framing this as its own hideous, intriguing creature.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is clearly engineered as a strategic, box-office Valentine’s release, buoyed by its sanitized, more palatable rendering of Cathy and Heathcliff’s love. We can’t fault her entirely for that: she’s hardly the first filmmaker to sand down Brontë’s rough edges. It’s a spectacle best experienced if you’re willing to surrender to it and ride the waves of its chaos rather than fight them. (Pilar Gonzalez)
Everyone should watch this film. To see how Robbie and Elordi carry this damaged, feral love. To notice the care in every image, the intention behind every rough edge. And to sit with a version of Wuthering Heights that feels painful, deliberate, and deeply felt, one that stays long after the lights come up.
It’s dark and obsessive, gothic and damaged; not a love story, but a story of love torn apart, reclaimed, used, discarded, and haunting long after it’s gone. (Esha Aphale)
This rather modern-feeling adaptation can be accused of being so ridiculous, overdramatic, overly sexualised, hysterical, crass, and even a tad soap operatic. But it can also be called completely self-assured of all that it wants to be. It allows the heightened emotions of its two romantic but longing characters and applies them to the film, making it look as frenzied as a romance is between a young couple. There are so many scenes of characters looking on longingly in the pouring rain. It never misses a chance to be so damn dramatic, but it works for this film, as it never stumbles in tone. (David Morgan-Brown)
Khaleej Times (4 out 5 stars):
In her interpretation, Fennell dissects love and all its synonyms. The care. The admiration. The longing stares across rooms and stables. The steamy, breathless passion. The selflessness. And then the flip side — selfishness, jealousy, obsession, possessiveness, toxicity. It’s messy and destructive; dare I say, for some, it might even feel uncomfortably relatable. Not because we endorse the chaos, but because we recognise the intensity of loving someone who feels like they are stitched into your very being.
But let’s be clear: there is obvious underlying toxicity here, and at times it makes the film more provocative than romantic. There’s a particularly jarring moment where Heathcliff, driven by jealousy, manipulates and uses an innocent girl. She appears to indulge it, almost drawn to the danger, but the abruptness of it is horrifying. It’s uncomfortable to watch because it forces you to confront what certain emotions can bring out in people. (...)
I genuinely don’t think I’ve seen a tale of obsessive, destructive love like this in a long time. Is it perfect? No. Is it subtle? Definitely not. But is it an experience, especially on Valentine’s weekend, when you're surrounded by pretty love stories? Absolutely. (Husain Rizvi)
Ara (in Catalan): (2.5 out of 5 stars)
La mare de totes les relacions tòxiques. (...) La directora d'
Una jove prometedora i
Saltburn revalida aquí la seva aposta, intermitentment efectiva, per acumular plans enlluernadors, però sorprèn que malgrat disparar la libido de Margot Robbie i Jacob Elordi, i entretenir-se amb postals sadomasoquistes, acabi entregant un film que no només mira des d’una distància prudencial els abismes de violència física i emocional de la seva font sinó que tanca els ulls per higienitzar les accions més abominables dels protagonistes. D’entre tot aquest desgavell sobresurt la tasca compositiva de Charli XCX, que ha trobat en aquest projecte una via per explorar registres i sonoritats ben allunyades de les fosforescències verdes de
brat.
(Gerard Casau) (Translation)
It’s ambitious and entertaining, but in aiming for spectacle it loses some of Brontë’s darkness, perhaps its greatest flaw. No matter the caveats, comparisons will still be made with the story that inspired it, and in that sense “Wuthering Heights” is an interesting experiment that shocks more than it inspires. (Victoria Luxford)
Cathy and Heathcliff, who are kept apart for long stretches of the story, are as star-crossed as they come — it's telling that in one scene, Isabella is recounting the plot of "Romeo and Juliet" — but the chemistry between the two leads never quite ignites the screen. Elordi and Robbie inhabit their roles, and the mechanics of the story do their part in keeping them apart. But does their love burn with the heat of a thousand flames? Ehh, not quite.
Still, there is plenty to admire in this "Wuthering Heights," not the least of which is the way it makes the nearly 200-year-old material feel contemporary and vital. (The goth-pop soundtrack by Charli xcx helps in that department as well.) This is a large-scale costume drama with an epic scope, and Fennell makes sure it's anything but stodgy. (Adam Graham)
Bad ones
For her shiny new take on “Wuthering Heights,” the writer-director Emerald Fennell has drenched the screen with torrential rain, filled it with pantomimes of passion and tried hard to compete with Emily Brontë. What a mistake! Over the past century or so, Brontë’s only novel has been nipped and tucked in assorted adaptations — for film, television, theater, opera, ballet and song — that have pushed and pulled it in different directions. It’s been glossed up, brought down to earth and read through the lenses of gender, class and race. Yet like its violently emotional lovers, Catherine and Heathcliff, the book resists taming. (...)
One problem with Fennell’s take, though, is that she wants to focus on the lovers while saying a lot about a lot. She tosses out ideas about women, men, sex, freedom and dominance, even while eliding the question of Heathcliff’s race, and trying to transmit the power of Brontë’s writing visually. Some of this is banal. Such is the case when, after some torturous narrative turns, Catherine weds her wealthy neighbor, Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), her new suffocating life is signaled by a dollhouse replica of her marital home. (...)
There’s more — so much more — including her simpering sister-in-law, Isabella (Alison Oliver), a human kick-me sign, and the soft, light-beige walls of Catherine’s bedroom that have been designed to resemble her skin, marbled veins and all. Why? Why not? Each room offers more sumptuous, strainingly clever details that expound on the same themes without deepening them. It’s like being force-fed candy.
Every reader makes “Wuthering Heights” into her own, and the same holds true for Fennell. Yet as the movie progresses — especially after Catherine and Heathcliff temporarily go their separate ways — Fennell’s embellishments grow more exaggerated and distracting, and her hold on the story becomes increasingly tenuous. (Manohla Dargis)
Fin dalla prima sequenza - una impiccagione in piazza in cui alcune giovani donne commentano maliziose l’erezione post mortem del condannato - Fennell gioca con un erotismo sfrontato visto da parte femminile, una risposta emotiva a qualcosa di primordiale, come lei stessa ha dichiarato, che l’ha sconvolto profondamente quando ha letto il libro per la prima volta a quattordici anni. Desideri ed emozioni sottintesi nel romanzo sono esplicitate di continuo con metafore poco sottili - appiccicosi tuorli d’uova, lumache striscianti nella lucida bava e l’impasto morbido del pane - che alludono a secrezioni intime.
L’estetica è aggiornata al presente attraverso i costumi indossati da Robbie della premio Oscar Jacqueline Durran, che attingono all’epoca elisabettiana e vittoriana, con l’omaggio esplicito al vestito rosso indossato da Rossella O’Hara in
Via col Vento, fino alle creazioni della moda contemporanea; con le scenografie di Suzie Davies che citano Barbie; la colonna sonora di Anthony Willis e il discutibile hyperpop di Charlie XCX. Non c’è bisogno di sapere che le IP generalmente funzionano bene per il pubblico che vuole vedere storie che già conosce, per predire un sicuro successo tra l’audience più giovane di un film che scompone e ricompone a piacimento un libro che ha saputo scavare nelle profondità dell'amore e della perdita e ha esplorato lo svilupparsi di una passione malata e autodistruttiva. E che qui viene espressa con selvaggia e grottesca intensità.
(Camillo De Marco) (Translation)
Visually, this is a stunning movie. Musically, it adds a modern beat that conveys emotion well. But those are pretty much the only nice things I have to say about 2026’s Wuthering Heights. (Emily Tsiao)
Eye-catching but superficial. (...) This ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a teenage sex dream that ends halfway through the book, which is maybe where 14-year-old Fennell stopped. In fact, in this version, neither Cathy nor Heathcliff have children, which means there can be no trauma passed on to the next generation, which is totally at the heart of this dark, complex, brutal novel that shouldn’t be a Valentine’s date, I promise you. Fennell’s treatment is eye-catching but superficial and because Robbie’s Cathy is like a capricious Scarlett O’Hara and Elordi’s Heathcliff is a hot boyfriend who broods, you can never buy into them as deeply connected soulmates. #TeamPurist all the way. (Deborah Ross)
%20(1).jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment