Featured image: Wuthering Heights by Robert McGinnis

Dearest Gentle Reader,

We will not have a gentle writer today!

I am aghast at my writing table, scribbling like a madman, babbling like a baboon. The new Wuthering Heights is completely blind- nay, insulting to its source material.

As a fan of Bridgerton and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, I am fine with historical inaccuracy if it serves a purpose, but this film is shaping up to be (unfortunately) nothing but shock value and insanity.

Let us examine the issues at hand which completely derail the story of Wuthering Heights and turn it into a different beast entirely.

At this point, they should have gave it a title other than Wuthering Heights- but alas, it is 2025 and we are in adaptation and remake hell.

What is Wuthering Heights (the novel) about?

It is a gothic novel about the obsessive love between the moorish Heathcliff and the Englishwoman Catherine Earnshaw, set on the desolate Yorkshire moors. It explores themes of revenge, nature, race, and the dark side of human passion. 

What does the movie turn it into?

A steamy, horny, shock value film that entirely removes anything of value that the original had to offer. It is a sad imitation that didn’t bother to do its own homework, and is likely rage-marketing off the book community.

I expected more from the director who brought us “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn.”

Oh, and minus points for the cliché tight-lacing shot in the trailer. Corsets were underwear!

1. Heathcliffe’s Race

In the novel, Brontë described Heathcliff as a “dark-skinned g*psy” with “black eyes,” a descriptor that strongly implies he is not white. 

“But you really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book. That is not based on real life. It’s all art.” ~the casting director

Emily Brontë is rolling in her grave! The entire reason Heathcliff has a chip on his shoulder is because he was looked down on for his race and low status. Changing it changes the entire story too much.

To be fair to Emerald Fennell, Heathcliff has traditionally been portrayed by white actors. Perhaps this is just Hollywood logic, and they will (like other adaptations before it) chalk up Heathcliff’s otherness to being adopted and being of lowborn status.

2. Catherine’s Casting

I like Margot Robbie, and I liked Barbie. Let’s see how this one goes… (weary bookish sigh)

In the book, Brontë described Catherine as a “striking beauty with long, beautiful brown hair and the bonniest eye and sweetest smile.” I’m surprised they didn’t put Margot Robbie in a brown wig!

Anyhoo, her character as shot in the trailer differs a lot from Catherine in the book, so to me, it feels like casting Blake Lively in the role of Lily Bloom in “It Ends With Us.” (Based on star power and name value, rather than character accuracy)

Unfortunately, Margot Robbie really really looks like she knows what an iPhone is. And I know that she was amazing as Elizabeth, but the clips from the “Wuthering Heights” trailer are basically the finished product. This is what we’re getting:”)

That said, she looks so beautiful in this shot within the carriage! Perhaps her portrayal will win us over eventually.

3. THE TONE…

The original novel was a tragic Gothic tragedy, while this trailer seems like a X-rated parody version.

The whip? The choking? The fifty shades of Gray vibes- really? I bet they’re going to pull a Saltburn on us:

Book readers do not expect a line-by-line adaptation, but at least make it recognizable as the same thing! At this point, it was just named “Wuthering Heights” for marketing.

My experience of reading Wuthering Heights was a tragic slow burn of angst and obsession across the ages, with ghosts and jealousy- more “Crimson Peak,” “Frankenstein” and “Jekyll & Hyde” than “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Mind you, there were zero sex scenes in the original novel. I do worry about cinematic adaptations’ “flattening” effect on literature, where every new adaptation has to sex up and make a dark gritty adaptation of every classic to make it more exciting for audiences… it’s like the ACOTAR-ification of stories.

What if instead of reading the novel, students just watch the movie then write their essay about that?💔🥀

4. The Moors

I’ll give it one thing: the Moors look beautiful and accurate in this shot. This dreary foggy mood is exactly what I pictured while reading the novel.

5. The visuals

The cinematography is honestly so stunning I can’t even be mad- well, this is indeed from Emerald Fennell, whose visuals never fail to impress.

PLUS POINTS FOR CAPES! especially bright scarlet capes against white snow- I live for this drama.

The inside of this manor!?

6. The yearning

“I can follow you like a dog to the end of the world.”

While he does not say this line in the book, it does kind of serve the purpose in the trailer.

7. The soundtrack

Fall in love again and again

Fall in love again and again

Fall in love again and again

Charli XCX is in the new “Wuthering Heights” soundtrack!? I see that Emerald Fennell’s target audience for this movie is Gen Z and… it’s working- I kind of see the vision: they want us to connect the story “Wuthering Heights” to the now.

All right, it remains to be seen if they succeed.

The manic repetition does give off “Wuthering Heights” obsessive energy.

After watching the trailer, all I’m thinking is: Did any one of the writers in the writing room read the book?

Perhaps they just bought one for the ‘gram then tossed it aside after taking an obligatory photo with it.

Needless to say, I will only watch this film out of love for the novel and nothing else. But perhaps my money would be better spent staying at home!

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Thank you for reading!