Watching the latest film version of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, I was reminded of when Baz Luhrmann put his own spin on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Though Shakespeare’s tragic love story originated as a play, like Brontë’s novel, it has been adapted countless times and when you specifically look at 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, Luhrmann modernized the story with style and music that would attract the MTV audience, whilst still maintaining the Shakespearean English. Since then, there have been numerous attempts from filmmakers wanting to modernize stories of classical fiction, and often the execution is not that great and sadly Wuthering Heights falls into that category.
A different beast compared to the 2011 film adaptation from Andrea Arnold, who took a more arthouse/vérité approach to the source material – even if the director herself was not happy with her own creation – Emerald Fennell takes a bolder approach that relies heavily on visual flourish, a strong emphasis on sensuality and featuring original songs from popstar Charli XCX. Having a brief role as the pregnant Midge in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, one can imagine that Fennell was somewhat inspired by some of Gerwig’s filmmaking decisions, even going as far as casting Barbie herself Margot Robbie as Cathy Earnshaw.
With some noticeable deviations from Brontë’s novel, such as the complete lack of Cathy’s older brother Hindley, Fennell is aware of the complications of adapting Wuthering Heights and has pretty much stated that this is her own take, much to the chagrin from the diehard Brontë fandom. Story-wise, Cathy is introduced to a young boy whom her abrasive, alcoholic father rescued off the Liverpool streets. From childhood to adulthood, there is a love between Cathy and the boy she names “Heathcliff” (Jacob Elordi), but due to their impoverished situation, Cathy wishes for a richer life and ends up finding love elsewhere, causing Heathcliff to leave their home in Wuthering Heights.
In terms of controversy, the casting of both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi has come into question. While Fennell embraces racially diverse casting here with Hong Chau as Cathy’s servant Nelly Dean and Shazad Latif as Cathy’s eventual husband Edgar Linton, she sticks to her guns with the casting of Elordi, who may not capture the ethnically uncertainty of Heathcliff, but does nail the brooding, brutish nature. Elordi actually fares better than his co-star who also serves as one of the film’s producers as Robbie is somewhat miscast in a role where she always seems glamorous, even during the initial act of poverty.
With a greater emphasis on sexuality, even during scenes that depict mental and physical cruelty, this is where the director of Saltburn leans into her strengths, resulting in a problematic tone. You can see this dysfunction from its opening minutes that features someone getting hung in front of the public that starts acting like they’re in a rave, all the way through the climax where tragedy moves at a snail’s pace. For all the lavish visuals from DP Linus Sandgren and the exquisite production design from Suzie Davies that evokes the work of Derek Jarman, you can applaud the modern ambition that defines itself from other versions of Wuthering Heights, even if it amounts to nothing.
