British writer-director Emerald Fennell hit the ground running with her first feature, “Promising Young Woman,” the 2020 revenge thriller, which earned her an Academy Award for best original screenplay and was also nominated for picture, director, actress (Carey Mulligan), and film editing. London-born, her father Theo Fennell is a luxury jewelry designer to celebrities and high society. His nickname is “the king of bling.”
The director’s second movie is “Saltburn,” the wickedly satirical sensation of the autumn of 2023, about which I raved and wrote: “there’s never been an ending quite like it.” “Saltburn” almost made her seem like the successor to John Waters, only with a bigger budget than Waters could ever have imagined for “Pink Flamingos,” his masterpiece of trash.
Fennell is now back in theaters around the world with her unique interpretation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, “Wuthering Heights.” It goes without amplification that she can make any kind of Bronte feature she wants – filmmakers have long ignored the full contents of classic books – but any student who writes a paper or gives a talk about the novel based solely on the movie is going to flunk the course. Bronte’s framework is present, but the film is all Fennell all the time. This means it’s visually stunning – the cinematography and costuming are extraordinary – but the story takes flights of fancy that are sometimes weird and sometimes disconcerting.
As written by Bronte, “Wuthering Heights” is about a mismatched and destructive relationship. It’s a late-18th-century story about the star-crossed lovers Catherine and Heathcliff, acted by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, respectively. Fennell tells it differently from the 1939 movie that stars Merle Oberon as Catherine and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff. Interestingly, that popular version only used material from 16 of the book’s 34 chapters. Secondary characters were virtually eliminated. There have been other motion picture, television, and stage editions of the novel, including director Peter Kominsky’s 1992 feature version with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, as well as a two-part 140-minute TV series starring Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy. Neither of them are mandatory viewing.
Fennell gives us the basics: Heathcliff is an orphan who is brought to the residence and farm known as Wuthering Heights as a child after the owner, a very concerned Mr. Earnshaw, decides that the street urchin deserves a better life and a much nicer place to live, as well as the fact that he can be a companion for his children. Earnshaw is a miserable man prone to excessive drinking of liquor. Heathcliff is fiercely resented by his foster siblings, Catherine and her brother Hindley. However, Cathy, as she is often called, develops a love for Heathcliff, whereas Hindley always sees him as an unwelcome addition to the family and dislikes him without equivocation, especially because he doesn’t understand his background: is Heathcliff a gypsy? Or a Caribbean islander, perhaps?
Time progresses and the children grow up. As much as Heathcliff has loved Cathy, he needs to prove himself, and he leaves the fog-shrouded moors. Cathy, for financial reasons and a much-needed sense of security, decides to marry a wealthy gentleman named Edgar Linton because he can provide for her. Heathcliff may have left the moors, but he returns, much wealthier than he has ever been and still in love with Catherine. He has done well for himself. This should set up a roaring struggle of romantic give and take, but Fennell takes a storyline route that never quite attains the sizzling level that the tale’s powerful romantic elements should achieve.
Is the lack of energy between Heathcliff and Catherine a failure of performance? Not fully, although there are times when Fennell allows a shade of hesitancy to take control. I think Elordi and Robbie are extraordinarily talented. He is a current nominee for a best supporting actor Oscar for “Frankenstein.” On March 15, the Academy Awards will be presented. She has three Oscar nominations: actress for 2017’s “I, Tonya,” supporting actress for “Babylon” (2022), and as a best picture nominee co-producer for 2023’s “Barbie.”
Both Elordi and Robbie are good fits for the roles they are playing. The problem regarding their characterizations lies with the director, who has decided to give everything her own spin, even if some of the spinning makes no sense or contrasts too much with the novel or the actual history of the era in which it is set. Her modernization is hit and miss, often too obvious, and tonally off too many times. The 136-minute running time is occasionally sluggish. There are scenes that feel more distracting than engaging.
The settings seem less Georgian Era and more an attempt to declutter rooms that in reality would be filled with extensive furnishings and the collected decorative bric-a-brac of the times. Additionally, the songs by Charli XCX are anachronistic. They don’t fit the alarmingly stubborn and often brutally destructive nature of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship. The word tempestuous is a perfect description of them. Therefore, it is justifiable to ask the question: why does the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff feel like an afterthought? There’s more robust sexual energy and palpable romantic tension early-on in the very first episode of “Heated Rivalry,” the cultural phenomenon streaming series about gay professional hockey players, then there is in the entirety of “Wuthering Heights.”
There are a number of elements that make Bronte’s novel a commanding literary presence. It’s about personal trauma, spousal cheating, paternal abuse, jealousy, violence, anger, and outcasts from a society that believes in walls between the classes. In the case of the book, one of the walls is bleak and utterly racist. Did Fennell misinterpret the novel? I find that doubtful. The answer is that she is a fearless director who willingly marches to the beat of her own drum. Her talent is prodigious. Ultimately, Fennell’s missteps mean “Wuthering Heights” isn’t compelling enough to wholeheartedly recommend.