TAGGED AS: book adaptations, movies, romance
Margot Robbie and Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi star in the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and the first reviews of the movie have just arrived online. This version is scripted and directed by Promising Young Woman and Saltburn filmmaker Emerald Fennell, whose take on the romance classic is loosely adapted and particularly stylized, featuring some over-the-top imagery and original songs by Charli XCX. The reviews are mixed, especially for those with loyalty to the source material, but you’ll have to see it to judge it for yourself.
Here’s what critics are saying about Wuthering Heights:
Fennell’s take is bold and engaging… [She] has her way with the iconic characters, as anyone might expect such a flashy director to do.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
Her take on the novel is that of a transcendent love story, which aims to have as dizzying an effect on its audience as it does on Cathy and Heathcliff.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Fennell’s approach is an extravagant swirl: sexy, dramatic, melodramatic, occasionally comic, and often swoonily romantic.
— Caryn James, BBC.com
It is glossier, louder, occasionally anachronistic, but also fiercely committed to the raw, obsessive love that has made Brontë’s story endure for nearly two centuries.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
I have to wonder if Fennell has ever actually read the novel… If you strip this movie of its title and change the characters’ names, this isn’t anything close to Brontë’s story.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
It’s ridiculously overripe, but exquisite, the sort of indulgence that sets some viewers vibrating and others rolling their eyes.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
The anachronistic soundtrack and knowingly exaggerated sensuality will split audiences, but there’s no denying the commitment to creating a sensory experience.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
There’s a melodramatic grandiosity to much of this, a touch of the overwrought, which you either go with or you don’t. I found it fun, not gonna lie.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
At times, the film’s over-the-top choices seem kitschy… but overall, Fennell uses stylised images well.
— Caryn James, BBC.com
Wuthering Heights is stylistically bold for no reason… a fever dream of a film, and not in a good way.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
Wuthering Heights is a beautiful film. Linus Sandgren’s cinematography means every scene pops off the screen.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
Cinematographer Linus Sandgren brings such lushness to the cinematography, with some breathtaking use of color when called for.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
The film’s aesthetic is boldly theatrical, almost feverish at times, with garish colour palettes and grandiose set pieces that feel closer to a dark pop opera than a traditional literary drama.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
In Fennell’s hands, the Earnshaw estate, which gives the work its title, looks like something Tim Burton might have dreamed up… whereas Thrushcross Grang could have been decorated by the American Horror Story crew.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
Literary purists may object, but Fennell seizes on something passionate in the material that was always there but never made explicit.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
Fennell makes some bold changes to the narrative, but not as many as you might think, and none of the intense moments of sensuality she adds feel out of line with Brontë’s original text. Instead, they only enhance what came before.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
She seems to have decided [it’s] The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, not so much the tortured psychology of it… Your enjoyment of the movie might be impacted by your affection for the novel.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
If you embrace the film’s audacious style and think of it as a reinvention, not an adaptation, this bold, artful Wuthering Heights is utterly absorbing.
— Caryn James, BBC.com
It’s arguably the writer-director’s most purely entertaining film.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Wuthering Heights risks smothering those whom Saltburn struck as too much.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
The leads are captivating, and their chemistry sizzles.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Their chemistry is volatile, unsettling, and undeniably electric.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
The two of them have an unmatched chemistry.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Elordi inarguably is the standout. Even after showing the monstrousness of which Heathcliff is capable, he ensures we still see a broken heartthrob driven by love and madness into the abyss.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
It’s fascinating to see Elordi play this monstrous brute so soon after embodying Frankenstein’s creation, and surprising that there’s less flesh on display here, but no fewer scars.
— Peter Debruge, Variety
Margot Robbie nimbly captures the depths of Cathy’s sometimes-petty heart at any age, a trust fall of a performance the movie doesn’t fail.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Robbie is in full bloom, walking a tightrope between infuriating recklessness and devastating regret.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Her performance is magnificent.
— Caryn James, BBC.com
Robbie gives a completely unremarkable performance.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
Robbie is faintly ridiculous as the incorrigible Cathy, pulling faces in the film’s early going like a clumsy rom-com heroine.
— Rocco T. Thompson, Slant Magazine
As is so often the case, it’s Chau who steals every scene, using her character’s stillness and alert gaze to great effect.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Martin Clunes is genuinely thrilling as Mr. Earnshaw.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Charli XCX’s song contributions fit beautifully with the quasi-tragic/quasi-toxic tone here — incorporated heavily into the soundtrack, they feel purely additive, like Fennell magically found the exact right needle drops for these scenes.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
The modern needle drops will raise eyebrows.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
When it falters, it veers toward indulgence and silliness. Even so, the film never feels timid.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
While there’s a laundry list of mistakes that Fennell makes throughout the film, the largest takeaway is that this is closer to an original story than anything that Emily Brontë ever wrote.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
Wuthering Heights opens in theaters in limited release on February 13, 2026.
