My Review of Wuthering Heights (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Emerald Fennell

Heathcliff: "I pray one prayer, I repeat it until my tongue stiffens. Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me, then! Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life... I cannot live without my soul..."

Ah, the first real controversial movie of 2026 or is it? I think Emerald Fennell does have aspirations of being a provocateur but at the same time, I feel she doesn't quite commit to the idea in itself. This movie really drove that point home.

There have been countless adaptations of Emily Brontë's infamous romance novel. Some have been more faithful than others and while this one was sort of faithful to the source material, oftentimes it felt like an an adaptation in name only.

The castings of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff respectively certainly brought about it's own discourse. They're both simultaneously miscast and incredibly perfect for their respective roles. At the very least, the chemistry between the two was largely on point. That really did help the movie a lot.

Cathy and Heathcliff met each other as children when played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper. Cathy's father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) adopted Heathcliff and often treated him badly. He wasn't much better to Cathy either. Cathy also had a tendency to treat Heathcliff like a pet. Heathcliff both loved and was rather cruel towards Cathy as well.

Look, Cathy and Heathcliff have never been a literary romance that screamed "couples goals". It's always been toxic, abusive and tragic. In this adaptation, there's also an element of BDSM thrown into the mix but again, it's something that Emerald Fennell never really committed to. I think Fennell's knowledge on the practice isn't that dissimilar to EL James's to be honest.

Anyways Cathy and Heathcliff grew up. Mr. Earnshaw practically drove them into poverty and died and companion, Nelly (Hong Chau/Vy Nguyen) was mostly a foil to the doomed romance between our volatile pairing. In fact, Nelly did as much harm as she thought she was doing good throughout this whole film. 

Then there's Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) and his ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver). The former ended up in a loveless marriage with Cathy and the latter (who's rather infantalised) ended up in a submissive role upon being married to Heathcliff. Both Edgar and Isabella have their moments as characters and play off well with Cathy and Heathcliff. 

As for the rest of the movie, again this was an adaptation that decided not to go with the second half of the book. There are no future generations to break the toxic cycle. In fact Cathy ended up dying from complications of a miscarriage and Heathcliff was haunted by her death. It's a bleak ending but I actually think it worked rather well for this particular adaptation.

- Cathy seemed a bit turned on by hangings and even stuck her finger rather pointedly into a fish at one point. Isabella picked up on the former bit.

- Various characters like Hindley are excluded here and the role of Joseph went to the much younger Ewan Mitchell.

- If you liked Saltburn, Emerald Fennell had no problem bringing back certain actors for this one.

- Styling the title in quotation marks was an interesting thing to do. 

- Chronology: Charli XCX was the soundtrack for this movie but the standout songs were Everything Is Romantic and Chains Of Love.

- Chronology: It started in 1771 England. Halfway through the movie, Heathcliff left Cathy for five years. Cathy was aged up in nearly being a spinster before marrying Edgar.

Despite some obvious issues, I actually liked Wuthering Heights (2026). Is it the best adaptation? No, probably not. Is it the worst? Definitely not! Could they have gone with more accurate casting? Yes. Are Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi actually good in their roles? Also yes! Will I ever watch this again? Also yes.

Rating: 8 out of 10