A passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’, stylised with quotation marks, has generated a lot of attention long before its release, from its casting of the Australian duo Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi in the leading roles to its liberal approach to adapting a classic novel. As someone whose knowledge of ‘Wuthering Heights’ comes almost entirely from the Kate Bush song, having not read Emily Brontë’s novel, nor seen any prior adaptations, I went into this with no hang ups about the nature of the adaptation. Having really enjoyed ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘Saltburn’, expectations were high.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it centres on a tortured love affair between Cathy Earnshaw, the daughter of a landowning family in the Yorkshire Moors, and Heathcliff, the son fostered by Cathy’s father, which has impacts on the Earnshaw family and the neighbouring Linton family, whom Cathy is married into. As a novel it has its dedicated advocates and while I will defer to those more familiar with the material, I can’t say this worked for me, either as a stirring romantic period drama or the subversive, sexy version that this version purported it was going to be.

Some of the controversy has centred around the casting and it’s not without merit. While the criticisms of Jacob Elordi’s casting as a character described as dark skinned in the novel is a bit over the top in a film that features Hong Chau and Shazad Latif in key roles, there’s no doubt the casting of Robbie & Elordi doesn’t work, largely because they are too old to play young, naïve lovers (Robbie is 35, Elordi is 28). That’s before you consider Elordi’s attempts at a Yorkshire accent, which isn’t particularly great. The supporting cast fare better, with Hong Chau and Alison Oliver both excellent, alongside a particularly impressive Martin Clunes as Mr. Earnshaw, and the cinematography from Linus Sandgren is admittedly superb.

I do agree with Emerald Fennell that she’s entitled to make the version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ that she wanted to make – as she says, for those who don’t want this version, there’s not exactly a shortage of alternative adaptations. The issue with this version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ is not that it liberally adapts the novel, but that this film is frankly quite boring and not nearly as bold as it claims it is going to be. Neither a classic nor a disaster, it’s just a bit middle of the road.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Emerald Fennell

Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt32897959/