Between Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Emerald Fennell has become one of the more under-the-radar filmmakers to watch – not quite a household name, but someone who definitely knows how to make a movie. Well, now she’s taking a crack at one of the classics by adapting Emily Brontë’s famous novel Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights is about a young woman named Catherine Earnshaw (Barbie’s Margot Robbie) who lives on the Yorkshire moors with her wealthy family in an estate called Wuthering Heights. As a child, the family takes in a young ruffian boy named Heathcliff (Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi), and after becoming fast friends, Cathy and Heathcliff fall in love with each other. Except, as they are growing up, neither knows how the other feels. Over the years, the two lovers come in and out of each other’s lives, always with obstacles that get in the way of their passionate and intense affair.
For those familiar with Brontë’s novel, Fennell takes a few liberties with the story. Some characters are cut and some subplots are trimmed, so this is more of a streamlined, simplified Wuthering Heights. But what this movie lacks in depth is more than made up for in lush imagery. With just three movies, Emerald Fennell has established a distinct visual style that instantly lets people know that they are watching an Emerald Fennell movie.
The set designs and locations in Wuthering Heights are stunning. Locations range from palatial beauty to dilapidated ruin, depending upon the estate and time period of the scene, but every detail onscreen is thought and planned out. If there’s a significant prop, it’s going to be used and probably thrown at something or someone. The lavish and intricate sets allow the camera of veteran cinematographer Linus Sandgren (Babylon, Don’t Look Up) to both capture and create the intricate scenes. Wuthering Heights is a gorgeous looking film.
The simplified story does not mean that the narrative is economical, however. Fennell makes use of the wonderous sets by milking every last second out of them. Wuthering Heights is a slowly paced movie, at times glacially so, and feels much longer than its two hour and thirteen-minute runtime. It’s not exactly boring, as Robbie and Elordi chew every stick of scenery in the joint, but even the perfectly melodramatic performances don’t keep the audience from just begging for something to happen. And something always eventually does, but there’s a lot of downtime in between the things happening.
As far as period pieces go, Wuthering Heights is above average. It’s not as snobby and uppity as many movies of its ilk are, and Fennell has a taste for the visceral that does hold the viewer’s attention, even through the slower sections. So, while the burn is slow, the movie is accessible to an average audience. The gothic horror approach provides more than enough to look at, even with the pacing issues.
Wuthering Heights is an interesting choice for a Valentine’s Day release, because while it technically is a love story, there’s not much love in it. Yes, Cathy and Heathcliff possess a burning, yearning desire for each other, but they’re both horrible people that use and abuse everyone around them. By the time things reach their inevitable conclusion, it’s hard to feel any sympathy or empathy for them. Heck, it almost feels like they deserve each other. And not in the good way. This is not exactly a Harlequin Romance.
Basically, Wuthering Heights is more of a feast for the eyes than it is for the brain or heart. So, let’s give it an A for visual spectacle and a C- for narrative and emotional impact. And we’ll average that out.
GRADE: B-
Rating: R for sexual content, language, and some violent content
Running Time: 2 hours 16 minutes
Release Date: February 13, 2026
Studio: Warner Bros Pictures
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