Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,“ with the title making sure to include inverted commas, has been the most anticipated and talked-about films of the year, thanks to book fans pointing out a ton of inaccuracies, including a whitewashed Heathcliff. Having not read the book by Emily Brontë, I came into the film as a fan of Fennel’s past work, and open to a more experimental 1800s romance, well, at least that’s what I thought I was sitting down for. “Wuthering Heights,“ for all its kissing scenes and montages of sex, is still a rather safe period romance, all things considered, and those expecting more hot and heavy sex scenes will be left somewhat disappointed if they’re coming for the smut.
The film introduces us to younger versions of Catherine, played as an adult by Margot Robbie, and Heathcliff, played as an adult by Jacob Elordi. Catherine, the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw, a drunk who is gambling and boozing his fortune away from his daughter, but also a complicated man who fills his dark side with ‘good deeds’ like bringing home and saving the young boy Heathcliff. The boy and girl grow up together, utterly incapable; as adults, it’s soon hinted by Cath that she’ll have to throw herself at the recently moved-in rich and single neighbour, Edgar. For money, of course, not for love, or even any pressure from her father, who by this point is unable to provide even enough to ensure the home is warm.
One evening, as Cath is confessing her love for Heathcliff to another live-in ward, Nelly, Heathcliff overhears the tail end of the conversation in which Cath says she couldn’t marry him again because of money and status. So he rides off and disappears for some years as Cath marries Edward and the two live separate lives for some time.
As in each scene before Edward’s arrival and in those when Heathcliff makes his mysterious return years later, the desire on both Margot Robbie’s and Jacob Elordi’s faces is palpable. The film isn’t as interested in exploring the status of what social means keep them away from— and perhaps a reason it didn’t even matter the role was whitewashed— as it is interested in showing two people who want to have dirty sex at any point. From early moments in “Wuthering Heights“, the sexual tension is felt not only in longing glances but also in close camera work on everything from egg yolks in hands to the kneading of dough. But when it comes to the exploration of that sexual desire, Fennell has pulled back from her dirty bathwater-inspired filmmaking as seen in Saltburn. For all the masturbating by a rock, or watching through a hole as a maid experiments with BDSM, our two stars never go any further than tasting the hand that touched thyself.
The most exciting performance in the film is Martin Clunes as Cath’s father, or even that of Owen Cooper as the young Heathcliff. Robbie and Elordi are fond of each other, but making me believe in the love, apparently deep within their hearts, for each other, they did not.
One thing Emerald Fennell does to make her vision of “Wuthering Heights“ stand out on screen is play with the colours and design of the two homes the film takes place in with great detail. Heathcliff’s barnyard bed is a home for him as Cath’s pet, while Cath’s new bedroom in the mansion has her walls painted to look like her own skin, based on Margot’s own, freckle and all; a home for a trophy wife.
Of the many wild swings the film takes, one at least works for me, which is the inclusion of a full original soundtrack album from Charli XCX. Yes, the pop songs are going to feel weird for a lot, but honestly, the editing around some of these as short music videos is one of the most interesting parts of the film, and as a huge Charli fan, it’s going to be the soundtrack that is more remembered than the film itself.
There’s not much romance here, which is fine, I’m happy to approach the relationship of these two as less soul-crossed lovers and more two inseparable bodies that can’t live without one another, but it quickly becomes a bore at over two hours. Little keeps the manic kissing and humping montages as interesting the third time around.
