Adaptations are a very difficult thing to do even for the most skilled and dedicated artists. Half of the audience will immediately dislike the adaptation because it isn’t loyal to the source material, and the other half will be mad if you don’t make enough changes.
I personally like to see an artist be inspired by a work of art and make something that isn’t a carbon copy of the original, however, in the case of “Wuthering Heights,” Fennel used a classic story about class, race and revenge to make a corny, poorly executed movie about sex and desire.
Every speech of love, physical scene between the actors and recurring symbol felt artificial. The performances of the leads, Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, were very pedestrian and the cinematography was uninteresting. The best part of the movie was the performances of supporting actors like Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif and Martin Clunes.
Oliver as Isabella was a joy every time she was on screen. Even if I did not like the direction of her character or the scenes she was in, Oliver always made them well-acted. Clunes embodied the cruelty, ugliness and eerie feeling Earnshaw brings to the story. Latif, while not giving the performance of Oilver or Clunes, still gave a strong performance as Edgar Linton.
A lot of viewers went into theatres with a critical mindset because of controversies over casting and statements made by the director. I was lucky enough not to catch any of that news on my social media algorithms and went in truly blind.
However, the decision to make Heathcliff white is not one I understand. His identity is so crucial to the heart of the story, that even if you decide to focus on different themes, his race shouldn’t change. In a story about love and desire, the difference in race would make the story more nuanced and more interesting.
That’s not the only creative decision I didn’t understand from Fennel. The choice to leave out Catherine’s brother, Hindley Earnshaw, was very confusing. He is the cause of much of the hate Heathcliffe feels for Catherine and the family which drives the plot forward. Instead of having Hindley create conflict, Fennel chose to shift the blame to Nelly, which felt like a mistake.
This movie is the first I have seen by Fennel and I wished for it to be over as soon as possible. She is a very talented and interesting filmmaker who had a lot of momentum coming from films like ‘Saltburn,’ and ’Promising Young Woman.’ While this film was far from perfect, it still had the distinct touch of the young director, and was interesting at times. The failure of ’Wuthering Heights,’ has not affected my anticipation for seeing her next film.
Fennel wanted to make a hot, evocative, love story and there are many stories like that to choose from. Her choice of “Wuthering Heights,” was one that didn’t work.
