Warning: Spoilers Ahead

There are a number of problems with Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” Emily Brontë’s famed 1845 novel. Though this movie has some good aspects, like its attractive visual style and contrasting soundtrack, none of them are good enough to make up for its shortcomings. 

The film follows Catherine Earnshaw and her father’s ward, Heathcliff, as they grow up and grow into a relationship full of forbidden desire, obsession and tragedy. The story starts when Catherine’s father takes in Heathcliff and they form a powerful, yet turbulent bond. This continues into their teenage years, where the two develop feelings for each other but don’t act on them due to society’s harsh rules. Once they are older, a new family, the Lintons, moves in next door, and Catherine is intent on marrying into their family for their riches and social status. Once she succeeds, Heathcliff feels completely betrayed, runs away, becomes extremely rich and returns years later after buying Catherine’s childhood home to move in next door and torment Catherine. Heathcliff’s revenge moves the rest of the plot along until Catherine’s untimely death.

The cinematography and production of this film were both captivating and refreshing. Finally, film audiences get a break from the recent trend of low-key lighting, close-up shots and monochromatic color schemes. Production Designer Suzie Davis, alongside Fennell, brought us a movie filled with color and substance. The dark, rainy atmosphere of the moors and of the house itself feels almost oppressive, reinforcing the rigid social structures and emotional tension that define life there. Catherine contrasts this gloomy aesthetic with her pale blonde hair and largely bright red wardrobe. In contrast to the moors, the Linton estate is designed to appear much more vibrant, colorful and orderly. Its bright interiors, many luxuries — like ribbon rooms and an abundance of gowns and diamonds — and overall warmth highlight the social stability and refinement that Catherine is expected to embrace. 

Fennell worked alongside British singer-songwriter Charli XCX to create the soundtrack for this movie. Charli XCX wrote and produced an art-pop album for the movie, also titled “Wuthering Heights.” There was a lot of 80s synth-pop-inspired music mixed with a dark wave, gothic vibe that added to the brooding atmosphere of the movie. The contrast of the modern, electronic sounding album with a period piece movie worked really well at keeping it dynamic and creating an unreal world.

This fantastical world is further solidified by the creative liberties that Emerald Fennell decided to take with her source material. It is impossible to ignore the blatant inaccuracies in this movie as an adaptation of a book — I honestly don’t know where to start. It’s important to mention that this adaptation only actually covers the first half of the book and completely omits the second-generation love story featuring Heathcliff’s son and Catherine’s daughter, who doesn’t even exist in the movie. 

The casting of most of the main characters is completely off. Originally, Catherine and Heathcliff are in their late teens and early 20s while the main part of their love story unfolds — Catherine even dies at the age of 18. Brontë describes Catherine as having dark, curly hair, a feature she shares with Heathcliff, who is also described as a dark-skinned man. Edgar Linton and his ward, Isabella, both have fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. In some cases, keeping the appearances of characters accurate to the source material isn’t important, as it doesn’t change the plot or message of the movie, but that is not the case for “Wuthering Heights.” In the book, the fact that Catherine and Heathcliff — mainly Heathcliff — look different from their neighbors, who seem to have all the wonders and riches that they crave, makes them feel even more out of place. This racial and class inequality is a driving factor of Heathcliff’s jealousy and desire for revenge later on in the story. 

Fennell decided to cast Margot Robbie, a 35-year-old actress, and Jacob Elordi, a 28-year-old actor who starred in her previous movie, “Saltburn.” Race, class and social expectations play a critical role in Brontë’s novel, but Fennell’s casting choices completely turn the story on its head and ignore these crucial themes. Fennell’s dismissal of the original plot also leads to a plethora of plot holes. For example, Fennell’s Catherine is a spinster, so there is very little chance that Edgar Linton would have wanted to marry her. Heathcliff’s rise to money is less impressive in the movie since Elordi is a white man, and his need for revenge feels petty and almost unfounded. 

The biggest deviation from the original text was the choice to make this story so sexual and kinky. It starts off with a scene where Catherine pranks Heathcliff by leaving eggs on his bed so that once he sat down, he crushed the raw eggs into his mattress. When this happens, Heathcliff begins to run his hands and fingers through the raw eggs, spreading them around, poking the yellow yolks, getting egg whites all over his hands and admiring how they stick to his fingers. All of this reads as incredibly sexual. We later see Catherine watch one of the cooks knead dough and her breath picks up as her mind gets lost in thought — she is clearly aroused. The kinkiest aspect of the movie is Isabella and Heathcliff’s marriage. Heathcliff breaks into her room after Catherine dumps him and offers to sleep with Isabella, but tells her that he will never love her and he will think about Catherine every second they are together. Isabella is not at all deterred by this. In fact, they immediately have sex and get married the next day. What I never could have guessed was that they would begin to have a pup/master relationship, where Heathcliff keeps Isabella on a literal leash and makes her bark at his feet. To be fair, Isabella is perfectly content with this relationship, and it is even revealed that she has some control in it as well. When it comes to sex between Heathcliff and Catherine, they keep it relatively vanilla, apart from some outdoorsy, risky locations. However, the inclusion of any sex could not be further from the source material. In the original version, Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship is not communicated through physical touch. In fact, one of the few kisses they share occurs on Catherine’s deathbed and is not romantic at all. 

If Emerald Fennell had taken inspiration from “Wuthering Heights” and used the bones of the story to create a new, somewhat original take on it, much like movies like “Clueless” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” her personal take on the story would have had the space to exist freely, without so much comparison to the original text. Unfortunately, Fennell chose to make and market this movie as an adaptation of a very famous and beloved novel, so she had to deal with a preexisting fanbase. The movie itself is pretty good — I even gave it a four-star rating on Letterboxd — but it doesn’t hold a candle to the original text. Simply adding quotation marks around the title was not enough to excuse Fennell’s overly liberal interpretation.