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Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" is the most bonkers, mainstream costume drama since Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" (2006), a take-it-or-leave-it mood piece and exercise in style as divisive and boldly delirious as this movie. It's too ridiculous to consistently take seriously but too passionate in its performances and filmmaking to dismiss, either.
The opening scene depicts a public hanging, toggling somewhere between provocation and self-parody, and the entire film proceeds in the same manner. With the upfront sexuality and F-bombs being the biggest additions, it's safe to say fans of the 1847 Emily Brontë novel will be mystified, if not thoroughly amused.
We meet young Catherine and her alcoholic father (played by Martin Clunes), who lives in poverty and bears an absurd resemblance to Bilbo Baggins from "The Lord of the Rings." The arrival of Heathcliff throws the household and Catherine's feelings out of balance. When they're grown, Catherine (played as a young woman by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (played as a young man by Jacob Elordi) are obviously attracted to one another but stubbornly fight to push those feelings aside -- for decades.
When the main characters were played by children, the film becomes tedious. Twenty minutes later, we get Robbie and Elordi and it finally comes to life. Robbie tends to be pushing as hard as the director, while Elordi hasn't lost his ability to brood and visibly evoke a lot by doing very little -- in the same way he was also a mesmerizing Elvis. While Robbie still appears to be channeling Barbie and Elordi has given better performances (like his recent, master class take on "Frankenstein"), they both have maximum chemistry and are the main attraction here next to Fennell's go-for-broke touches.
There are scenes of sadomasochism, but they're brief interludes, and Fennell seems as uneasy with them as P.T. Anderson was with similar moments in "One Battle After Another" (2025).
Still, the film shows oodles of intended eroticism (I say intended because much of it is quite hilarious) and of outrageous touches with the S-M the least of it. Transitions from sex scenes include slimy snail trails and a close-up of Robbie putting her finger into the mouth of a jellied fish. Suddenly the pottery erotica of "Ghost" (1990) seems quite tame by comparison.
The costumes and art direction, while stunning, are quite insane. These include the fireplace with a sea of handprints, or any of Robbie's outfits that appear on loan from a Star Wars prequel. This is my kind of crazy -- a visual and deeply personal interpretation of a novel that could have only come from this filmmaker or Ken Russell or Julie Taymor at their nuttiest.
Robbie's performance grew on me, and few contemporary movie stars can hold the screen like she does -- but it's Elordi's movie. The only one who comes closest to stealing the film from the leads is Alison Oliver, who takes the nothing role of Isabella and makes it a comic tour de force.
Once Heathcliff rides a horse into the reddest sunset imaginable, I was invested in Fennell's vision, even as it didn't resemble the classic work of literature I despised in high school (sorry, Mrs. Donadio). By the end, I had completely surrendered to it, as Elordi is so moving in the final scene. This is not only the first film from Fennell I liked (her prior two started strong but crash-landed by the end) but also the first film version of "Wuthering Heights" I would happily watch again.
I wound up seeing this on Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, by myself, in a sold-out screening of almost entirely women. Two memories I will cherish: when Elordi appears as Heathcliff with a clean-shaven makeover the first time and many in the audience applauded, and during the last scenes, where I found myself crying softly and heard most of the audience around me audibly sobbing. They were not politely crying, but wailing and groaning. I saw "Titanic" (1997) twice in the theater, and that experience was nothing like this.
(2.5 stars out of four)
Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawai'i Maui College.