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“Wuthering Heights” (2026): WhoWho isis thisthis adaptationadaptation reallyreally for?for?
Let’s lay a few ground rules here for “Wuthering Heights” (2026). I am not going to even attempt to go over the differences between the novel and the film. Nor am I going to cover any historical inaccuracies. That would be a Sisyphean task in futility, given how little this film cares for fidelity, aside from a few moments I will discuss below.
Rather, I will review this film for what it is: an artistic and dramatic reinterpretation that suffers from a few too many structural changes, which threaten to bring the wind-beaten old stone of the Heights tumbling down, but still somehow manages, rather like Saltburn, to capture your imagination in a way few films nowadays can even hope to match.
WARNING: Heavy spoilers below!
Characters discussed in order of first mention:
- Alison Oliver plays Isabella
- Shazad Latif plays Edgar Linton
- Hong Chau plays Nelly Dean
- Margot Robbie plays Catherine Earnshaw
- Jacob Elordi plays Heathcliff
- Martin Clunes plays Earnshaw
“Wuthering Heights” (2026) Initial Thoughts
Right, let’s get that opening scene out of the way. As with so many aspects of this film, ‘gratuitous’ and ‘unnecessary’ are the only words that will suffice. The song used, Charli XCX’s ‘House’, tricked me into believing we would start off with an old, depressed Heathcliff. Heathcliff would reflect on the misery of his existence and the pain of his loss, contemplating his imminent demise in a house he had fought so hard to win.
Alas, I gave Emerald Fennell too much credit. I need not say much about what we were forced to witness instead. At least it prepared me for the sadomasochistic elements awkwardly spliced into Fennell’s narrative. For reasons only known to herself.
My other minor gripes are as follows: it is a shame Fennell elected to cut the second half of the story, but she is not the first to do so. Also, having Isabella be Edgar’s ward rather than his sister was a pointless change. The change did not even remotely impact the story, so its inclusion is baffling.
Yet, the cinematography was so impressive it bordered on psychedelic. The costumes were gorgeous, if historically disappointing; Charli XCX’s soundtrack helped to tie the story together as it threatened to split apart at the seams. I walked away hating every character as much as I did after closing the final page of the book. That I did so for much the same reasons is a victory for Fennell.
The parts I loved: Nelly Dean
Even I am surprised by how much I have to say about what worked well and genuinely impressed me about this film, and I will not withhold credit where it is due. That every actor/actress gave compelling performances goes without saying. A film like this would otherwise collapse under the weight of its own vision.
By far the best change from the novel was the character of Nelly Dean. Though it still cleaves tightly to the source material in achieving this. I was not convinced early on by her change from a servant to a minor aristocrat, taken in as a companion for Cathy. But later, this subtle shift in her origins bore fruit. Isabella’s foreshadowing of Nelly as the doomed observer of this tragedy in her description of the nurse from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was a brilliant touch.
Here, Nelly is every bit the prime mover behind certain events in the story she is in. In fact, she does more here than her literary counterpart. She is the most memorable character in this story, which often sidelines or cuts her entirely, affording her far more agency. Very few other adaptations bother to include Nelly. Yet, she is the novel’s main narrator, and here she is restored fully and beyond my wildest hopes to the centre. You understand every decision she makes, and Cathy deserves every wrong, Nelly does her.
The parts I loved: Catherine Earnshaw
Catherine Earnshaw is another standout character. As the main focus of the narrative, she is far more understandable, and subsequently infinitely more dislikable, than her novelistic counterpart, and this is ultimately what lends the film its strength. I hated this Cathy and felt, in many ways, she deserved her fate, and this removal of her moral ambiguity actually helped create a more compelling version of her character.
It must be said that the best parts of the film were, without surprise, those lines of dialogue and moments of heightened drama taken straight from the genius of Emily Brontë. Chiefly, I am speaking of Cathy’s confession to Nelly of her love for Heathcliff; Heathcliff’s accusing Cathy of breaking her own heart by marrying Edgar Linton; and, of course, Heathcliff’s final lines spoken to his dead love. These moments grounded the narrative, and the credit for them must first go to Emily Brontë. Secondly, I praise the cast for conveying such raw emotion that I felt transported into the scene.
What am I Watching?
Turning to the elephant in the room, there was no need for so much sex. Even worse, it felt empty. Lust is all well and good, but these scenes were utterly devoid of love and affection. They left the distinct impression that Cathy and Heathcliff were having sex because they wanted to try it, not because they wanted to make love. The central relationship of the film thus rings hollow when it is trying to be at its most intimate.
The combination of Hindley Earnshaw, Cathy’s brother, and their father was a double-edged sword. It bolstered Cathy’s character motivation in giving her another, more sympathetic reason to marry Edgar. All the while, she deprived Heathcliff of his motivation to take Wuthering Heights for himself and avenge himself on the two families he felt had wronged him. Without Hindley to ruin, Heathcliff simply buys the Heights because he can, and uses it as a venue to conduct his affair with Cathy. Furthermore, using the Heights to degrade Isabella. This has the effect of robbing the house of any significance after Cathy moves out.
The set and Isabella
The set design was overdone to the point of being frankly ridiculous. The idea that a man as boring as this rendition of Edgar Linton would have the idea to panel and floor his wife’s bedroom with material designed to match her skin, veins and freckles, is absurd. The film’s namesake likewise suffers. Wuthering Heights is no ruined sixteenth-century country house, but rather some bizarre attempt by a modern architect to achieve something ‘edgy’. The result is incongruous, incoherent and downright ugly. Not gothic ugly or haunted ugly, just eye-sore ugly.
Finally, Isabella’s ‘degradation’ felt forced and awkward. Her sudden, jolting transformation from a sweet, intelligent, childlike woman to some kind of sadomasochistic figure was not at all believable and left a few audience members laughing. Myself included. I will indulge myself in making one point here regarding the book. Isabella’s agency in defying Heathcliff and leaving him with their son, fleeing his rage and brutality, marks an important moment in the book. The moment, one of which we, and more importantly Isabella, are robbed of here.
“Wuthering Heights” (2026): Conclusions
Upon reflection, my feelings towards “Wuthering Heights” (2026) are decidedly mixed. I would not recommend this film to fans of the novel, nor do I class it as any kind of ‘adaptation’ worthy of the name. However, I would still recommend it more generally as a thought-provoking and thrilling experience. Wuthering Heights tells its own story with a drive and power rarely found in cinema nowadays.
It is a shame Fennell chose to use the novel and its title as the vehicle for her vision. I feel she would have done better to simply start from scratch and tell her own doomed and disturbed love story.
Image credits: Warner Bros. Ent/OutNow AG
