Emerald Fennell has had the detail of putting quotes in her version of “Wuthering Heights,” because her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s nineteenth-century novel is free. The fatal attraction between the characters of Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) is there, like many other things, but its environment, its outcome, some other characters and, above all, the background, the depth, have changed.
The director known for her work on the series ‘Killing Eve’ and the notable film ‘A Promising Young Woman’ – that was an unforgettable ending – here rather follows the path begun in the questionable ‘Saltburn’. No matter what century we’re talking about, what interests Fennell is perverse love, uncontrollable desire, the relationship between sex and death. In the first scene of “Cumbres” he already contrasts a hanging with a kind of orgy. Lars Von Trier-style provocation or fraud? Revelation or scam?
We are in England in 1847 and it is raining a lot, a lot, because -SPOILER-… we are in “Wuthering Heights.” A child is rescued from begging by a family, but what seems like a dream come true turns into a nightmare when the father turns out to be an abusive alcoholic, with what we would now call serious mental problems. Half servant, half stepbrother, the boy takes refuge in the daughter, who wanders between spoiled and tender, even as the years go by.
Somewhere in that contradiction there were great characters to develop, struggling to leave trauma and misery behind. It’s a shame that the film decides to destroy them when it turns the female protagonist into an innocuous bubblegum-colored princess with a certain influencer look. Marie Antoinette’s Converse by Sofia Coppola threatens to go flat at any moment.
If Margot Robbie leaves doubts, what can we say about that Jacob “fucker” Elordi, who directly makes the room laugh with his ‘Ugly Betty’ transformation. The evolution of his character, which is not explained, could not be more impostered, and thus very difficult to empathize with either of the two protagonists. After several scenes that inspire a good “that they are beaten”, the end produces indifference. And that is where “Wuthering Heights” had to establish a love/hate relationship with the viewer similar to that of Polanski in ‘Moons of Bile’; or simply making a good sexy-thriller like ‘Fire in the Body’, is reduced to a postcard that is neither pretty nor annoying. In times of, on the one hand, polyamory, and on the other hand, neo-chastity, “Wuthering Heights” fails to neither seduce nor shock, unless you continue to remember ’50 Shades of Grey’ every day of your life.
They do not add secondary characters as Manichean or directly ridiculous – created for the occasion or firmly adulterated – as that of Nelly, that of Edgar, that of the father or that of Isabella, which goes from voluntary to involuntary humor in just one scene. With this cake, it is a bit of a joke to say that the best thing about the movie is Charli XCX’s music, but the truth is that it is. Because it already happened in ‘Saltburn’. Very appropriate and well integrated, not at all abrasive except in some scenes and the final credits, with a moderate but relevant prominence, and leaving the necessary space for the true “score” of Anthony Willis, the soundtrack of ‘Wuthering Heights’ is the only artistic achievement that the production company can score.
