Wuthering Heights (2026)
Directed by: Emerald Fennell
Premise: Based on the novel by Emily Brontë. Set in nineteenth century England, Cathy (Margot Robbie) is the daughter of an economically ruined house. She is in love with Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), a commoner she grew up with, but Cathy marries the wealthy neighbor instead.
What Works: Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights has been adapted to the screen many times but filmmaker Emerald Fennell distinguishes her version. Fennell is a maximalist filmmaker who mixes sexuality and gender politics. Wuthering Heights is Fennell’s best film so far. (That’s not much of a contest since Saltburn was terrible and Promising Young Woman was an ambitious mess.) Brontë’s novel gives Fennell some decent source material to work with and she plays up the story’s masochistic qualities. Social class hierarchies and the economics of eighteenth-century marriage dovetail with personal desires. These characters are cruel to each other but that cruelty has sensual and psychological dimensions. Wuthering Heights is Fennell’s most controlled and focused work as a writer and director. Her style doesn’t leave much for subtext but this version of Wuthering Heights has a distinct visual style in its production design and camerawork. The film benefits from the casting. Cathy is played by Margot Robbie who is able to be vulnerable and bratty. There is a lot of humor in Wuthering Heights, much of it due to Robbie’s performance. As Heathcliff, Jacob Elordi emanates passion and sexual menace, making him both frightening and alluring. Also notable is Alison Oliver as Isabella, a sheltered woman who also pines for Heathcliff.
What Doesn’t: As part of the style, Wuthering Heights does feel a bit overdone and overlong. The picture does not work as well when the filmmakers emulate a more traditional costume romance and especially when they get melodramatic. Much of this film is very specifically stylized especially in its art direction and the pitch of the performances but in some key moments, such as the cliché passionate kiss in the rain and especially in the ending, Wuthering Heights takes on a mainstream style that makes everything feel artificial. The very maudlin moments at the end come across out of place with the tone of the rest of the picture. Much like their protagonists, the filmmakers are so enraptured by the passionate romance between Cathy and Heathcliff that they don’t give much consideration to the ethical or emotional implications of Cathy’s infidelity. Her husband (Shazad Latif) is mostly pushed to the background and he’s treated as an inconvenience rather than a full character with a stake in the marriage.
Bottom Line: 2026’s Wuthering Heights is an uneven film. When the style and the performances come together, which they do for most of the running time, this is a bold and interesting interpretation of a familiar story.
Episode: #1087 (February 15, 2026)