Wuthering Heights (M)
Directed by: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau
Review by: Julian Wright
Crank the aircon because cinema is heating up with a new (loose) adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring two of the hottest stars at the moment Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi going at it to a Charli xcx soundtrack.
In the 1770s, alcoholic Mr Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) takes a young homeless and illiterate boy into his care to live at his home on the Yorkshire moors.
Seems like a charitable move, but it is really so that his daughter Cathy can have a pet, who names him Heathcliff.
A close childhood bond develops into full-blown unexpressed love as the two grow up but bratty Cathy (Margot Robbie) yearns for stability, so she marries rich, loving neighbour Edgar (Shazad Latif) which prompts Heathcliff to leave in a huff without a trace.
Years later, Heathcliff returns, now rich and dignified, and he and Cathy have a passionate love affair, despite Cathy being pregnant by Edgar – which of course opens an entire can of worms and creates saucy drama.
Writer/director Emerald Fennell has created a steamy, fleshy, squelchy, tongue-filled adaptation of a literary classic.
This is so amusingly extra horny that Edgar is so dedicated to Cathy that he adorns her room with pink flesh toned wall complete with veins and freckles like her face.
From the director of Saltburn – that’s what you are in for here.
It is certainly a version we probably never thought we would see, and for that it is worth seeing for a couple of hot Aussies engaged in steamy trysts.
Fennell ups the ante in the later stages by making the novel’s sadomasochistic theme literal, but this shift in tone drains some of the mystery, fun and passion.
Otherwise, this is a handsomely made production with each frame a beautiful thing to witness on the big screen.
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