My Thoughts on “Wuthering Heights”

I recognise that I’m a little late to the party with this one, but I finally watched Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” and I thought I’d tell you how I felt about it, because I’m wondering how you felt about it (if you’ve watched it) and whether your thoughts are anything like mine.

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First off, I should say that I probably went into this with some prejudice, even though I tried not to. I’d heard so many awful comments about the film that I was expecting the worst. I should also admit that Wuthering Heights is far from my favourite novel. Even though I fully appreciate the genius of Emily Bronte, I do find it a bit of a slog, and I don’t like anyone in the book. In fact, full confession, I’ve never actually reached the end of the novel because I’ve always given up when Heathcliff gets darker and more despicable after Cathy’s death, and having to struggle through such grim scenes always made me put the book away and vow to read it again another time.

I never have - but here’s another confession. I now possess three copies of Wuthering Heights - two gorgeous hardbacks and one illustrated paperback. Why I bought them, I don’t know. It was during my recent book-buying obsession when I couldn’t seem to put a halt to my splurge. It’s over now but I’m left looking at shelves of books and wondering what on earth I was thinking…

Anyway, the point is I’ve got three beautiful copies of Wuthering Heights, so I will read this novel before the end of the year and that’s a promise! Maybe (hopefully) I’ll love it more this time around. Maybe.

One of my hardback copies with spredges

Anyway, back to the film. “Wuthering Heights” (the quotation marks are there for a reason) is ‘based on’ Emily Bronte’s classic novel. It’s, I suppose, a re-imagining of it.

I’m not a film expert and rarely keep up with what’s going on in the movie world to be honest, and I had no idea Emerald Fennell directed films at all. To me, she’s the actress who played Camilla in The Crown and that nice red-headed nurse Patsy in Call the Midwife, but a quick look at her Wikipedia page reveals that she’s done far, far more than that, and has had a quite dazzling career so far.

I said I wasn’t a film expert, and to be honest, I don’t watch much new television either, so it’s not surprising that I’d never heard of Jacob Elordi. I had heard of Margot Robbie, but only because I succumbed to curiosity and watched Barbie. I don’t think I’ve seen her in anything else. Until now.

At first sight I thought, uh oh! What terrible casting. I read that there’d been some controversy because Heathcliff is supposed to be dark-skinned, although I haven’t seen any adaptation that’s been true to this so far. (And forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Emily Bronte specified this, did she?) I just thought this Jacob Elordi fella didn’t look rough enough for Heathcliff. Too pretty. (Although having seen clips of Cliff Richard as Heathcliff I would take Jacob Elordi in the role any day!)

And as for Margot Robbie… She’s a bit old for Cathy. And she doesn’t look like Cathy. I mean, Cathy’s dark-haired, isn’t she? But is that actually mentioned in the book? I don’t think it is, and there’s no reason for her to be dark-haired really, so I put that aside and decided to give the film a fair shot.

My illustrated paperback

So Emerald apparently said that she wanted to recreate the feelings that she’d experienced when reading the novel for the first time as a teenage girl. When I was a teenage girl I hadn’t yet read Wuthering Heights, but I had watched the film starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon, and I can remember running upstairs to my bedroom as the final credits rolled, throwing myself on the bed, and sobbing my heart out at the injustice of it all. My best friend and I used to sit in her front room with Kate Bush’s song ‘Wuthering Heights’ playing on repeat on the record player, absolutely obsessed with the idea of these two doomed lovers who’d been treated so cruelly by fate.

As I got a bit older, I recognised that Cathy is a haughty, arrogant, selfish little twerp, and Heathcliff is a brutal, cruel sadist. But if Emerald was basing the film on her teenage fantasies about the book, I could see that it would be more about star-crossed lovers than hateful people who were caught - not in love - but in a cloying, hideous obsession with each other that affected everyone around them. If that sounds unfair, I’m sorry, but I’m pretty certain that Emily Bronte wrote her book as a lesson to us all about jealousy and obsession, rather than as a love story. I’ve never understood how anyone could view Heathcliff as a hero - at least, not once you pass the age of eighteen or so.

The other hardback edition (Let’s call it Wuthering Heights Green Version)

But back to the film…

Please bear in mind that this is just my opinion! Okay, so firstly the sets were… Well, what were they? I mean, to be honest, that first glimpse of the moors and Wuthering Heights itself reminded me more of a planet that Kirk, Spock, Bones et al would have landed on during the original Star Trek series than a realistic Yorkshire Moors. There were strangely futuristic shaped stones or sculptures everywhere. I couldn’t fathom them out to be honest. And the house was not what I was expecting. Where was the old stone farmhouse? Instead Wuthering Heights seemed to be made of black shiny bricks or tiles. And what an odd shape! Okay, so that was the first shock over.

The interior sets were almost fairytale like. At times, it reminded me of the cover of the Stevie Nicks album, ‘The Other Side of the Mirror’ with the chequered floor, and at other times it was like the Disney show, Once Upon a Time, with its elaborate yet fake sets. It all felt very staged and unreal.

Thrushcross Grange, the home of Edgar Linton, was an odd and almost fairytale-like place. First seen from the top of a hill, it was like a mirage in the desert. Compared with Wuthering Heights it appears to be a place of beauty and refuge. But then you look closer… The room that Edgar prepares for Cathy is beyond weird - with wall panels that are based on her skin, complete with a little mole on her face. Ugh!

One of the illustrations in the paperback edition (by Edna Clarke Hall)

Wuthering Heights is, by contrast, the grimmest place possible. Dirty, grimy, dark, lacking in any basic comfort. No wonder Cathy decided Thrushcross Grange was the better bet. Poor Heathcliff is relegated to a room in the stables, where he sleeps on a straw bed.

Then there are the costumes. The most elaborate ones are reserved for Cathy, and it’s hard to imagine Emily Bronte would have anything like them in mind. To begin with she’s dressed like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Appropriate really. But as she marries Edgar and moves up in the world her clothes become - well, I can’t think what they become. At one point she appears to be wearing a dress made of shiny plastic. Her wedding dress is something to behold. I doubt Emily ever saw the like.

There are some character changes, too. Nelly is much younger than she is in the book. In fact, she’s around Cathy’s age and they seem to have grown up together. When Heathcliff arrives, Nelly’s clearly jealous that Cathy begins to spend far more time with the boy, and that jealousy deepens as they get older. She causes an awful lot of trouble for Cathy and Heathcliff and brings about disaster.

Isabella is a completely different person from Book Isabella. To say she’s weird is an understatement. From her first scene you can see that she’s, er, strange. Dressed like a doll and obsessed with her doll’s house, she’s soon infatuated with Cathy, and gives her the most odd and creepy gifts. She follows Cathy and spies on her and is, quite frankly, like someone from a horror film.

When she marries Heathcliff the relationship between them is a twist on the one in the book. Although Heathcliff is still brutal towards her, she’s a willing participant in his cruelty. When Nelly visits and offers to free her and begs her to return to Thrushcross Grange with her, Nelly tells her she’s already home and gives her a wink, as if to say she’s perfectly happy thank you very much, even though she’s chained up like a dog and answers her husband with a woof! It takes all sorts, I guess…

One of the little extras that came with my green version of Wuthering Heights

There’s not much to say about Edgar really. He didn’t make much impact on me one way or the other, and he’s certainly no David Niven version. I didn’t dislike him or like him. He was just - there.

Martin Clunes, who I love, plays Cathy’s father, but he’s also sort of playing her brother, as in the two characters have been rolled into one. He veers between being very pleasant and apologetic, to being an absolute beast, who beats Heathcliff violently and threatens Cathy, and finally brings them to financial ruin with his drinking and gambling. Eventually, he loses Wuthering Heights to the newly-rich Heathcliff and dies a broken and still utterly vile man. In fact, he’s so vile that after Cathy views his dead body and cries for all of two minutes, she boots him in the head several times - whether to show her hatred or to check he’s really dead, who can say?

Heathcliff himself is certainly a more palatable version of the character than Book Heathcliff - although that’s not saying much. I think Emerald tried to make him more acceptable to modern audiences by making Isabella a willing participant in his treatment of her. When he climbs through her bedroom window at the Grange, he warns her - step by step - of all the horrible ways he will treat her, and how he will never love her, and that he will be cruel to her. Each time he states a fact he clearly asks her, ‘Do you want me to stop?’ And each time she says, ‘No.’ So Isabella consents. Though whether she’s mentally fit to make that choice is highly doubtful.

Gorgeous endpapers in the sprayed edge version!

So, I expect you’re thinking it sounds awful and that I must have hated it.

Here’s the thing.

I didn’t.

I actually really enjoyed it! And reading this post back I can’t say for sure why that it is. It just is. There’s something compelling about it. It’s over two hours long but it flew by, which is always a good sign. Even though I hate Heathcliff and didn’t think Jacob Elordi matched up to the character in my head, he was really good in the role and I thought he did a sterling job and did what was asked of him.

Margot Robbie - who I would never in a million years have cast as Cathy - was so good! She captured the essence of Cathy - or at least this version of her - perfectly.

The truth is, everyone in the cast did a good job, and although it’s not the Wuthering Heights we’re all familiar with and believe we’ve read, even when we haven’t, because it’s so much a part of our literary heritage and popular culture, it’s a version of Wuthering Heights that is enjoyable and even emotional at the end.

Yes, there are sex scenes, but compared with other films and television shows (mainstream ones at that) I don’t think they were particularly outrageous or even that frequent.

There will always be Wuthering Heights purists who will hate it, and there will be people who simply find this film not to their taste. That’s fine. We’re all allowed our own opinions. What I would say is, don’t judge it if you haven’t seen it. If you watch it and hate it, fair enough, but you might be surprised to find it’s not what you were expecting at all. I certainly learned that lesson!

So what did you think? Have you watched it yet? Are you intending to? It’s certainly a film that’s caused plenty of controversy and I can see why, but now I’ve watched it myself I don’t really think it deserved to be reviled as much as it has been. And I do know quite a few people in real life who’ve absolutely loved it.

Happy watching.