Wuthering Heights

Pretty low-brow and unwuthering.


The sets, costumes and production design were fun, and creative, though not that interesting in the long run. It's all a mix of plastic chique, 80s fantasy TV movie, pop-avantgarde stageplay and what I imagine a Ken Russell movie to look like despite never having seen one. The whole visual language of the movie screams jewelry commercial more than anything else and the Margot Robbie's costumes seemed to exist solely to fetishize her body. Without making her look actually sexy, somehow. Probably because especially in this kind of story, physical appearance isn't enough. You need some kind of exciting, spicy personalities, actors with crackling chemistry, that kind of stuff. Which this movie had none of.

The leads were way too old and came off more...in need of medical assistance rather than passionate, in love or traumatized. They either seemed to suffer from extreme late onset puberty or some sort of brain disease.
Which is in parts because of the way these characters are playes.
Elordi had the charisma of a wooden stick, and almost seemed like he was doing a tasteless representation or mean imitation of someone with a learning disability. He leaned way too hard into this cartoonish dumb guy voice and I have no idea what possessed to speak so goddamn slowly.

Robbie is good, technically, I guess, crying scenes and all, but neither her demeanor nor her accent seemed anywhere near „nailing it“-territory. She didn't come off immature and teenagery enough, except for whenever the plot needed her to be dramatic or narcissistic.
What didn't help that he girl who played her as kid did a way better job of playing an annoying, bratty, self-absorbed and pathologically possessive person.
Not to mention the opening scene of the movie, which, not unlike Promising Young Woman, promised some macabre, sarcastic, provocative and wild ride farce of a movie. None of which was seen anywhere afterwards.

From what I understand, never having read the book, but having watched and read some reviews of the movie, its biggest issue is that it completely glosses over any sociopolitical implications stemming from either the racism or classism that seem to be very important themes as well as plot devices in the book.
The socioeconomic realities being weirdly glossed over was noticable to me even during the movie, just based on the historical context. Catherine seems more interested in the allure of marrying a rich guy than it seems to be motivated by material necessity.
And Heathcliff being some sort of ethnically ambiguous other is apparently not some cosmetic diversity gripe bothering mostly younger US-online-individuals, but rather another major reason why Catherine and Heathcliffe never consumate their love (or bodily desires) in the book. Which came as a surprise to me. That fact that they didn't I mean. Because it just...makes just so much more sense that way. Considering all those plot elements.
Also the abuse. Which would explain so much of the...few actually fucked up things either of them do in the movie. While it's shown in the beginning, it seems to not matter anymore after we fast forward to them being in their mid-30s. At least that's what they look and feel like.
Catherine having what appeared to be some sort of sexual awakening/realization Heathcliff's touch makes her all high and wuthery would make sense for a 16-year-old. With a character that reads as 35 it's just weird. And without all these obstacles and mistreatments you don't have anything actually standing in their way, which would create all this built-up tension, desire and longing, making them behave...not that great. :D
This way they're just standing in their own way. As if they were more in love with being in pain due to unrequitted love rather than actually wanting to be together.

I actually found the plot of the movie not that uninteresting, simply because I had never read the book and didn't know anything about it. But as soon as the plot started standing still in favor of samey and half-awkward sex scenes, it got boring really fast. I saw zero chemistry, which I blame mostly Jacob Elordi and his try-hard „acting“ for. He was just...weird, lanky and awkward (also the way he broke that chair earlier looked so...weak. :D)
I heard someone say that watching these scenes equates to people who are bad at sexting. Who type „and then I put your in my mouth“ four times and you're just „Yes, and...?“

Before that you could have argued that it would be hard for any actor to take their performances beyond blandness with dull-ass dialogue like this. Even in the writing it seemed like the two leads were the most boring characters by far. But they just...weren't right for it.


I found the movie genuinely pretty funny, though, whenever it's trying to be. Be it crude dick jokes or situational comedy. Which often came from Isabella. Or whenever a quick and witty retort was delivered aptly with exactly the right timing. Thinking of you, Hong Chau...
But amusing as it was, it kind of made the movie feel like it wasn't taking itself very seriously. Whereas at other times the movie was clearly expecting you to be genuinely invested in it (for some reason). And, unique, creative or even mildly interesting all the elements that actually worked might have been, the movie never manages to weave them into anything resembling one coherent, concise piece of art. Or movie. Or anything. It's just a mish-mash of moviemaking ideas that is kind of nothing in the end. Even if mildly entertaining.


Fennell said that her approach was to focus und what she remembered from when she read the book for the first time at 14, combined with some sort of wish fulfillment as to what she would have liked to have happened. Which to her was sadomasochistic eroticism for some reason. Which...is barely in the movie though? I mean yeah, in that one little Heathcliff/Isabella subplotm but not at all between him and Cathy. If anything they're randomly bitchy and cunty toward each other out of the blue sometimes, but never in any kind of sexy or „sadomasochistic“ way.

They're not sexy period. Even when they're dressed up to be so. Probably because they never actually act or behave in a way that is sexy. And because real obstacles are missing.
The thing is that the repressiveness of the social norms of those times and those circumstances is exactly the thing that is supposed to create their sexual tension, which one can only assume (based on this movie) is the thing that had ol' Emerald so high and wuthered. But the movie never does anything in their stead to evoke that same kind of response. It never replaces that missing element with a real, tangible obstacle which keeps them apart. It merely visualizes Fennell's personal reaction to whatever it evoked it when she consumed it.
Meaning it's ultimately a movie about herself, but for no-one.

It being about herself isn't an issue by itself. It's art, she's an artist (albeit not a very good one), why shouldn't it be? But it makes no attempt to actually try to give others what she has received. It's like someone gave her flour and instead of making bread for others, she ate it herself and published a photo book full of pictures of her eating bread. Instead of actually sharing the food she made, she rather chooses to share impressions of what her not being hungry anymore looks like. Which won't feed anyone. Maybe that's the real metaphor. That's the thing this movie is expressing. How much of a spoiled parasite she is (hehe). :D
But yeah, this contortion of Wuthering Heights seems to offer no value in terms of...adding anything to the material, making it pallatable to a modern audience or providing some sort of commentary on it. Apart from what can only be described as „'elevated' horny wine mom commentary“. As someone on letterboxd said. :D

No but seriously, I just don't consider this a movie for anyone. Even though it definitely seems to be an opportunity to goon over Jacob Elordi for some. Who by the way I thought was really really good in one scene. Well, more like one shot to be honest. The one where he cries over Catherine's dead body. That was some good actin'. But that was literally the only time.


It's sort of like an Eli Roth movie. Promising all kinds of nasty, disturbing, shocking, provocative goodness, but only delivering tame and bland trife.


Now having this be the plot of the Barbie movie. But with the actual abuse, darkness, trauma, racism and social politics and repression from the books...and the dick jokes from this...that would have indeed been quite something... :)