She’s in Love with the Boy

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the new “Wuthering Heights” adaptation comes in like a cold wind off the moors so strong that it immediately rips your shirt or bodice wide open. Writer/director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel is a hot take on a story that has always been about obsession, repression, and desire curdling into something feral, only now it’s a bit more dangerous.

In other words, if you’ve ever read the novel and thought, “I wish this story was hornier,” congratulations: This movie is for you.

The basic bones of Brontë’s tale are still there: Young Heathcliff (Owen Cooper, from the Netflix series Adolescence) arrives at Wuthering Heights as an outsider, taken in by Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes), who intends to raise the boy as his stepson. “This’ll be your pet,” Earnshaw tells his daughter, Cathy (Charlotte Mellington). But it’s clear there’s a different kind of bond between the children. Even as pre-teens, the two share a mutual attraction that becomes something more as they enter adulthood. 

And then, when the two are older (and played by Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie), before they can give in to temptation, they’re drawn apart by class, pride, and bad timing, setting off years of resentment, cruelty, and longing. Suffice it to say, what could have been a romance for the ages instead calcifies into a tale of revenge and regret. There’s basically only one way the story can end, and even if you know what’s coming, the film makes the emotional slide feel visceral and unavoidable.

Not that there isn’t some lusty action before the film, uh, climaxes. No wonder my friend Ken called it 1850 Shades of Grey.

Brontë’s 1847 novel has been adapted for the screen at least a dozen times before (most famously by William Wyler, who cast Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the lead roles), and it should be no surprise that this version of “Wuthering Heights” is so naughty. After all, Fennell is the filmmaker behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, the latter of which was a decadent, twisted, and wickedly funny film, and one of my favorites of 2023. Both were edgy and emotionally messy, and this film follows that trajectory. (Though, thankfully, there’s nothing quite as creepy or gross here as watching Barry Keoghan obsessively lick up the water in a bathtub.)

A huge part of the film’s appeal is the two leads. Robbie’s Cathy is ferocious, funny, and deeply self-destructive. She captures the character’s thrill-seeking spirit and her capacity for emotional violence without ever losing the audience’s sympathy. 

Elordi brings real physicality and wounded magnetism to Heathcliff, leaning into both the romance and the menace. As in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, for which he is Oscar-nominated, Elordi often exhibits monstrous behavior but always shows the humanity lying just beneath the surface. 

Together, Robbie and Elordi have the kind of potent chemistry that makes even quiet scenes crackle — glances linger too long, arguments feel like foreplay, and the silence hums with tension. Both attack their roles with zero restraint, making Cathy and Heathcliff feel less like literary icons and more like real people who cannot stop wanting each other. 

Appropriately and unapologetically, Fennell emphasizes the high pitch of it all, creating a film that’s sure to excite fans of Bridgerton and provide fodder for plenty of social media content. Between Robbie’s heaving bosoms, Elordi’s bare chest, and multiple scenes of the two of them soaking wet, the director has basically created a 140-minute thirst trap — one set to a score (composed by Anthony Willis with original songs by Charli XCX) that’s moody, romantic, and occasionally anachronistic in a way that heightens the emotion without distracting from it.

The supporting cast (including Hong Chau, as the adult version of Nelly, Cathy’s housemaid and confidante) does strong work, too, grounding the melodrama so it never tips into camp.

Also worth noting is the production design, which should already be a contender for next year’s Oscars shortlist. The bold colors, candlelit rooms, rough fabrics, and storm-battered landscapes all reinforce how physical this world is. 

In short, if you’re a purist looking for a polite, dusty take on the classic novel you remember from English class, this “Wuthering Heights” won’t be for you. But if you want a bold, sweaty, emotionally unhinged adaptation that makes the doomed romance feel scandalously alive, this one delivers.

I’m giving it a B+.