Can We Even Call This An Adaptation? My Somewhat Controversial Review on Emerald Fennel's "Wuthering Heights”

 Editorial Assistant Alicja Krotofil, reviews Emerald Fennel’s titillating film "Wuthering Heights” examining its sensual shadows, tempestuous romance, and lush gothic decadence.

Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for both the film and the novel

I would like to preface this with a quote directly from Emerald Fennel during an interview where she’s asked to explain the quotation marks around the title: “You can’t adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book…What I can say is I am making a version of it”[1]. 

Since its initial screening, Wuthering Heights has caused enough commotion to warrant my interest. A couple of weekends ago, I grabbed a friend and we went to watch it. I had heard all about the strong opinions that followed discussion of this film and also read about half of the book at this stage, so I went in knowing most of what was going to happen. My initial rating was 8.5/10, which was surprisingly higher than I thought I would rate it, and definitely higher than most people have. From that moment I knew I wanted to comment on the adaptation and discuss why Wuthering Heights was so pleasant for me to watch, even though it is so far from the original story and has received reviews like: “Emily Bronte is turning in her grave because of this.” 

Let’s talk about the novel. Although the language might seem a little outdated, it is an easy read. I feel it emanates the same energy as Pride and Prejudice, but with more ghosts and obsessive lovers. If you haven’t, you should definitely read it. If Emily Bronte is truly turning in her grave at the sight of this film, let's at least honour her memory by reading her book. Emily wrote this book in 1847 under her pen name, Ellis Bell. It is a gothic and romance fiction, and what exactly it is about is up to debate. If I was to summarise it in a single sentence: A prying tenant reads the old diaries of a long-dead woman in his landlord’s house, suffers a feverish and ghostly shock, and then listens as the housekeeper recounts the dark history of an obsessive love and its ruinous aftermath.

Wuthering Heights is after all a story within a story, following a Mr Lockwood who finds himself renting an ominous property from a mysterious man named Heathcliff. The housemaid who looks after Mr Lockwood and nurses him to health is Nelly Dean, who used to serve Catherine’s family. From her point of view we hear all about the relations between two families, mainly focusing on the deranged and violently passionate love between Catherine and Heathcliff. Love the trope of a prying housemaid. 

Emerald Fennel's adaptation of Wuthering Heights was different from the get go. We could see this in the obvious lack of accuracy when it came to costumes in the early release trailers where everything worn by Catherine is years from making an appearance in the world of fashion. We could also see Emerald's choices in turning away from an accurate adaptation by casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, who in the novel is described as having a dark skinned complexion.

Although it is common for film adaptations to stray away from the original ethnicities of characters in order to fit in with a changed world, Heathcliff's ethnicity plays an unavoidably integral role in the plot of the novel. It is because of his background that he receives harsh treatment and it is also one of the reasons that many disapprove of Catherine's love for him. It is disappointing to see that Emerald changed this detail and in doing so took away so much from the original story. However, we can see that Heathcliff is not the only character whose ethnicity is disregarded. Edgar Linton is played by Shazid Latif, who has a mixed background including British, Scottish and Pakistani. His darker complexion does not resemble the fair Edgar described in the book. The same goes for Nelly Dean who is played by Hong Chau. Although Hong was raised mostly in America, she was born to Vietnamese parents and also does not sport the fair features of Nelly. Emerald clearly was not concerned with honouring the book-accurate ethnicity of the characters but rather wanted their personalities to be best displayed by suitable actors and actresses. Or maybe she just couldn’t resist the raw chemistry that exists between two Queenslanders. 

Aside from Heathcliff's whitewashing, there are many characters missing from this raunchy adaptation. Where are Hareton, Hindley, young Cathy and all of the other wonderfully irritating side characters that we love so much? Vanished into thin air. Not to mention the film ends after Catherine's death and doesn’t include anything from the remainder of the novel. Another strong point of contention. 

This film stars a brand new curated soundtrack straight from brat girl herself, Charli XCX. You hear ‘1847 romance novel’ and you don’t exactly picture a pop icon, but Emerald had her reasons. In a Fandango interview with Charli, she comments that she has always “—been just obsessed with Charli since I first heard her”. She also reflects on one of her previous movies where she reached out to Charli to use a song of hers; “When I wrote Promising Young Woman, the first song of it is Boys” [2]. It is clear that there’s an artistic connection between musician and director and they both worked together to create a devastatingly haunting soundtrack. I think Charli’s work for this movie is just fantastic and her album adds an extra layer of dissociation and creepiness to the final effect of the film. I mean, who didn’t get goosebumps when House started playing?

So here it is, my final verdict; Emerald Fennel could have avoided all the 1 star reviews if she bestowed a different name upon her film. As I mentioned in the beginning, the quotation marks signify a transformation of the original novel into Emerald's imagination of a rather horny and whimsical take on the dark love story. Alas, these quotation marks are not enough to distract from the novel and its influence. Everybody, this is not Wuthering Heights, it is Emerald Fennel's adaptation of a part of the story. The truth is, if you take this film at face value you will see it is a truly brilliant work of art. 

They say that just like the first line of a book, the first scene in a film is what draws you in and sets the mood for the entire thing. I think “Wuthering Heights” did this so well that I almost squealed in the cinema. The opening scene features an obscenely gruesome and inappropriate moment where young Catherine and Nelly are giggling at the hard-on sported by a hanged man, which is rather confronting and unnerving. It does an excellent job of capturing your attention and showing you exactly what the key themes of the movie are; grotesque realism, horny women and whimsy that balances between deserving and inappropriate. And for the history nerds, during the 1800s public hangings were something that occurred frequently and were often attended by the public so it is not unlikely that Catherine was privy to such events. 

The first moment you see Wuthering Heights in all its glory you feel as if you are Alice falling down the rabbit hole and stepping into Wonderland. Everything looks kind of like a fake version of itself, but still real enough that you feel like you are watching a 5-star stage production. The cliffs surrounding the ghostly manor feel very paper-mache-esque and you can see that this movie engages with the inherent dramatic nature of stage plays. Throughout the entire film there are such details scattered about, especially in the costumes, where the obviously inaccurate fashion creates commentary on Cathy’s emotions and her changing mental state. We see her be spoiled by the Lintons and be dressed in even more ridiculous and over-the-top gowns. The brightly shimmering latex isn’t just ‘accidentally wrong’, it has intentional implications for the treatment that Catherine receives from her husband which is suffocating and restricting her true nature. 

A whimsical and fairytale-like nature is woven into the production of this film, visible in the very things that most people have reacted negatively to. I agree with the general opinion that this is not a successful accurate adaptation, but we already knew it wouldn't be from the moment Emerald Fennel commented on the quotation marks. If you step away from the preconception that you’re going to watch a film exactly like the book, and look forward to watching how someone interpreted Catherine and Heathcliff's love, then you will enjoy this movie just as much as I did. 

by Alicja Krotofil

References

[1]Bonner, M. (2026, January 15). Emerald Fennell Finally Explained Why There Are Quotes Around “Wuthering Heights.” Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a70008602/why-are-there-quotes-around-wuthering-heights/

[2]Fandango. (2026, February 3). Charli xcx & Emerald Fennell on the Emotional Impact of Music in “Wuthering Heights.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux_jtzK0wTU