Wuthering Heights (15)

Emerald Fennell gives Emily Brontë’s 1847 classic a lush, feverish overhaul, stripping back subplots and leaning hard into the novel’s obsession, desire and self-destruction.

On the Yorkshire moors, young Cathy Earnshaw grows up alongside the foundling Heathcliff, taken in by her father at Wuthering Heights. Their bond is fierce but constrained by class and expectation. As adults, Cathy chooses security over passion, marrying the respectable Edgar Linton and moving to Thrushcross Grange. Years later, Heathcliff returns with money and purpose, determined to reclaim what he believes belongs to him.

Fennell heightens the sensuality and spite simmering beneath the surface, staging the romance as something raw and volatile rather than wistful.

The design is richly textured, all mud, mist and candlelight, matching the characters’ heightened emotions. Margot Robbie gives Cathy a sharp, restless edge, torn between selfish impulse and genuine longing, while Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff balances wounded devotion with gathering menace.

At times indulgent and deliberately provocative, this is “Wuthering Heights” with it’s quotation marks proudly on display. It embraces excess. But its focus on pride, class and catastrophic choices keeps it’s roots steeped in tragedy.