In her haunting track "Dying for You," pop icon Charli XCX croons, "cause you're the poison I drink, I drink you twice to be sure." This lyric perfectly encapsulates the toxic, all-consuming love at the heart of Emerald Fennell's daring new cinematic adaptation, stylized as "Wuthering Heights." The song features on the film's soundtrack, accompanying Fennell's reinterpretation of Emily Brontë's 1847 gothic masterpiece about the destructive bond between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.
A Director's Personal Vision
Fennell, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind "Promising Young Woman," deliberately places the title in quotation marks to signal this is not a faithful, page-by-page translation. Instead, it's a deeply personal project born from her teenage connection to the novel. "I wanted to make something that was the book I experienced when I was 14," Fennell has stated. The result is a film that distills the sprawling narrative into a raw exploration of childhood infatuation morphing into adult devastation, intentionally setting aside some of the source material's broader themes of gender, class, and race.
An Unconventional Gothic Melodrama
Viewers seeking a straightforward adaptation will likely be disappointed, as the film ignores over half of Brontë's plot. However, those open to a cinematic experience that feels like a lovesick 14-year-old's fever dream—full of angsty longing, visceral imagery, and symbolic, viscous objects like egg yolks and gelatinous fish mouths—will find it captivating. It's a film designed to be felt deeply, making it hard to look away.
Fennell makes her artistic intentions clear from the outset. The movie opens not with Brontë's text, but with jarring audio of moans and grunts. Initially suggestive, the scene reveals a public hanging where the crowd becomes titillated by the condemned man's visible erection. This provocative juxtaposition of horror and arousal immediately establishes the film's transgressive, unsettling tone.
The Core of a Poisonous Love Story
At its heart, the film follows the tragic relationship between Catherine, played with fierce intensity by Margot Robbie, and Heathcliff, portrayed with brooding magnetism by Jacob Elordi. They meet as children after Catherine's father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes), takes in the orphaned Heathcliff. Bonding through shared abuse and neglect, they mistake their desperate cling for survival as a profound, fated connection.
As adults, that bond becomes explicitly sexual and even more destructive. Their chemistry, however, is no match for economic reality. Forced by her father's financial ruin, Catherine accepts a marriage proposal from the wealthy neighbor Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), declaring she cannot "degrade" herself by marrying the penniless Heathcliff. Devastated, Heathcliff flees Wuthering Heights, returning years later as a newly rich man, adorned with gold, to re-enter Catherine's life and reignite their affair.
A Torrid Affair and Inevitable Tragedy
Their reunion is a torrid, mutually destructive spiral. Charli XCX's lyrics again resonate as Catherine proves Heathcliff is the "gun to my head" and "favorite jewelry worn just like a noose 'round my neck." The narrative then drives toward its inevitable, gothic conclusion with Heathcliff's manipulative marriage to Edgar's sister Isabella (Alison Oliver) and the consequential betrayals that seal Catherine's fate.
Her death, a direct result of the story's pervasive cruelty, leaves Heathcliff utterly unmoored. As the film asserts, this toxic dynamic was never meant to be romanticized, but to be captivating in its raw, painful truth.
A Full Sensory Experience
Fennell's vision is realized through exceptional craftsmanship. The haunting, grotesque chemistry between Robbie and Elordi is amplified by Linus Sandgren's sweeping, atmospheric cinematography of the Yorkshire moors. Suzie Davies's production design feels unsettlingly unrestrained, while Jacqueline Durran's costumes are bold and fantastical. Charli XCX's anguished songs on the soundtrack complete the immersive, heightened sensory experience.
Ultimately, "Wuthering Heights" is unnerving, overly dramatic, and unapologetically intense. It succeeds as a reminder that the most destructive loves are often the most mesmerizing. Fennell's adaptation, powered by committed performances, ensures that Cathy and Heathcliff's story remains as compelling and unsettling today as it was over 175 years ago. The film is now playing in theaters.
