A new adaptation of the famous novel, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, has hit the theaters. Directed by Emerald Fennel, best known for her movie “Saltburn”, and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff, the film has received much attention and criticism since its Valentine’s Day release. 

The novel Wuthering Heights follows the torrid love affair between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, as the story spans from their childhood to their deaths. Since its publication in 1847, the story has gained a life of its own, with countless adaptations since the birth of film. 

But still, for me and many others, the film proved lackluster at best. I’d like to give some things that I enjoyed about the movie beforehand: Robbie and Elordi are always pleasures to watch on screen, and by themselves, they gave moving performances. The soundtrack and score is phenomenal, and the story itself was compelling, although this isn’t the fault of the movie. 

The first major issue with the film is the casting. Heathcliff, in the novel, is explicitly described as a man of color, “a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect”, and the major division between Catherine and Heathcliff comes not only from the fact that he’s not of high status, but the fact that he is not a white man. To cast Jacob Elordi in this role, especially in the political climate we’re in right now, feels wrong. 

On the subject of race, it didn’t go unnoticed by me that the two romantic leads were both cast as white, and the two “obstacles” to their romance, Nellie and Edgar Linton, were conveniently color-blind casted. These two things, when paired together, perpetuate the narrative that people of color are the “villians” in white people’s stories. 

But I think what I noticed more was the casting of Margot Robbie as Catherine. In the book, Cathy is in her mid-to-late teenage years, and behaves as such. Robbie is 35 years old. While I don’t hate the idea of a potentially aged up version of Wuthering Heights, I thought that Cathy’s character was still written as a child, and a natural discrepancy arrives when you watch an adult woman on screen behave like a child. 

In much of the discourse regarding this movie, many of the film’s defenders site the movie’s title being placed in quotes, revealing the intention of the film to portray Fennel’s interpretation of the novel when she first read it, stating that it is personally subjective to her. And while I don’t think this is a particularly solid defense, I can understand how an adaptation like this could work. 

However, my impression of her high school level interpretation of the novel is that she wanted the most popular kids in school (Hollywood) to play her Catherine and Heathcliff. 

While I believe that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are good actors on their own, I thought that Robbie and Elordi had no chemistry at all. I could not realistically them as a couple, and a had a hard time believing their romance. I felt absolutely no connection to them as romantic leads, or even just characters.

One thing about me, I am a sucker for good visuals in a movie, and there’s a lot of nonsense I can take if the film looks beautiful. But I found the visuals to be odd. They seemed hollow, and weirdly extravagant, but not in the way the 1800’s is usually extravagant.

“Beautiful gowns, gorgeous gowns”, Aretha Franklin once said, but I can’t say that about this movie. The fashion was ridiculously historically inaccurate, and I don’t think that is necessary for a historical adaptation, the historical inaccuracy should have some kind of meaning, not just wanting Margot Robbie in a plastic lingerie jumpsuit. 

Overall, the general vibe and atmosphere of the movie was incredibly off-putting to me. Everything just felt… weird. It’s hard to explain, but it had an absolutely rancid vibe. 

I also thought that the film weirdly oversexualizes many of the themes in the story. The hyper-sexualization was something I noticed in Saltburn, but in such a classic and historical story, I don’t think this makes sense. Many of the real themes in this story are undermined by the rampant sexualization and TikTok bait, which leads me to my main issue with this adaptation: the “BookTok-ification” of movies and books.

This entire movie feels like it was written for the consumption of TikTok “bookTok girlies”. It had moments to silently scream about in a paid review, but completely glosses over the complex themes of the novel. It lacks substance, and a real, defined perspective. 

Despite my negative thoughts about the film, it was entertaining, at least. And the soundtrack by Charli XCX was the best part of this movie.