DIRECTOR
Emerald Fennell
Promising Young Woman, Saltburn

STARS
Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Martin Clunes, Shazad Latif and Alison Oliver

Of the very many film and television adaptations of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, “Wuthering Heights” 2026 serves as my introduction to this globally recognised story. Irrespective of the very few or vast volume of Wuthering Heights versions you have previously seen, Oscar-winning co-writer and director Emerald Fennell’s contribution is loosely inspired by Brontë’s highly regarded only novel. I imagine it therefore offers all potential suitors a blind date, or sorts.

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This adaptation of the period drama begins by dedicating its first and fairly short act to the childhood years of Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw (Margot Robbie), Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Nelly (Hong Chau), explaining how Heathcliff was taken into the Earnshaw home by Cathy’s father (Martin Clunes) and illustrating how rapidly Cathy and Heathcliff become inseparable. There is no bond with and quite little liking towards the lady of the house, Nellie, but one commonality they do all share is awareness and experiencing of Mr Earnshaw’s abusive behaviour. Cathy enjoys educating Heathcliff and is headstrong and loyal from young, but the latter is tested and will change when she is an adult.

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Financial hardship strikes the Earnshaw home. Cathy eyes a possible way out of poverty by purposely putting herself out there for the very rich Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) to pursue, going against her heart, which is devoted to Heathcliff.

 

For me, “Wuthering Heights” is a foundationally flawed tragic love story that simply matters less than and does not carry the same emotional weight other tragedies such as Romeo & Juliet do, but it does have a saviour. Her name is Emerald Fennell. Had this rendition of the story been moulded by almost anyone else’s hands, I fear it would have become the “Withering Heights” I mistakenly first called it! Despite the absolute crux of this movie never assuming the control it desires, and perhaps ostensibly aware of this, Emerald Fennell creates and delivers her most magnificent production as director yet that proves capable at influencing and increasing the overall effect of how it ends this story.

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Courtesy of the choices before her and decisions made, it is extraordinarily difficult to feel empathy for Cathy once she realises her terrible mistake and the conundrum she has now got herself and others into. Furthermore, to this point in the movie, the unbreakable bond and undying love between Cathy and Heathcliff it evidently wants audiences to experience is barely palpable. The years preceding Cathy and Heathcliff being and growing apart from one another are under-developed (even in the source material from what I understand) and some of the developments are mawkish. There were moments audience members at the screening I attended laughed where laughter didn’t quite seem the intended reaction of the scene provoking it. Later developments that unravel throughout the second half of the film are hoping we will feel shattered by them, which is limiting at best when the overall emotional attachment to the picture, its characters and what is causing the shattering just isn’t where the film needs them to be.

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“Wuthering Heights” is the fourth film this century to mostly be shot in VistaVision, a format first developed in the 1950s and used in the Academy Award ® winning film, The Brutalist and fellow Oscar-candidates One Battle After Another and Bugonia. While the story certainly isn’t sweeping, the camerawork and certain imagery throughout most definitely is, with some of the credit also going to the dramatic locations the movie is filmed. The stylistic nature of “Wuthering Heights” doesn’t end there either. The detail in the props inserted into the production and its costume design also shape this into the spectacle it is. Its music score is powerful, injecting waves of energy into the production and playing its role in ensuring audience boredom is never really on the cards. Another move that Emerald Fennell has pulled, albeit this one is random and risky yet (mostly) works a treat, is its occasional downright weirdness, usually brought to screen by the awkward and sometimes creepy character, Isabella (Alison Oliver). In fact, of the handful or so characters in the film and how their fates come to fruition, she is the one I felt most sadness for, oddly enough. 

“Wuthering Heights” is showing in cinemas across Australia from February 12th, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures Australia for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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