Oh, the drama! On Valentine’s Day, Wuthering Heights was released into theaters. The adaptation of the classic novel by Emily Brontë dominated its opening weekend, with $34.8 million to $37.5 million in the box office.

Upon its theatrical release, many mixed emotions were expressed by fans online. Many people felt it wasn’t historically accurate or faithful to the source material at all. 

“This is what stresses me out about the costuming. Nothing she wears is contemporaneous to the period,”  wrote one TikTok user.  Which is true, since for example, corsets were not worn on bare skin like it shows in the film. And all the dresses are clearly modern or at least modern-influenced. 

“Emerald [Fennell, director,] wanted to make Gone With The Wind but knew she wouldn’t get the funding, so she used part of Wuthering Heights with similar themes to GWTW and ran with GWTW visuals,” wrote another user. The aesthetics and costuming definitely has similarities to Gone With The Wind and I can understand this user’s point of view. If you kept the costuming and the general aesthetics, tweaked them a bit, recast the characters, then you got yourself a 2026 Gone With The Wind remake. 

While many have expressed their opinions with pros and cons of the film, here is what I thought about this new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Here is my review of the film. I have not read the book, this is just purely a movie review. 

Warning: this review contains spoilers 

This adaptation was a fantastic artistic take on the classic story. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi absolutely shined in their roles as Cathy and Heathcliff. I nearly felt the same emotions they were feeling. Like the pining, yearning, and tortured love.

The set design was beautiful and fit the story very well. The location chosen for the film, the Yorkshire Dales National park, was visually striking and perfectly complemented the overall tone of the film. Same thing with the costuming. Despite the fact that it’s not historically accurate for the time periods the story takes place in, the 1700s-1800s, I saw this choice  as artistic and risk-taking. 

The cinematography was beautiful, with lighting that was dark but contrasted well with the bright and added to the intensity of the whole film. The tension was so strong, I was sitting upright in my seat waiting to experience what was next. 

The score was perfectly eerie. The screeching violins tied the whole atmosphere together. I immediately listened to the album when I got home from the theater. Charli xcx’s work on the songs was pleasantly surprising. I’m not much of a hyperpop fan so I wasn’t sure if I’d like her on the soundtrack but, wow. She was able to pull away from her mainstream sound to something more experimental and dark. Songs like “House,” “Wall of Sound,” “Always Everywhere,” and “Chains of Love” really stuck out to me and I will be putting them in my regular rotation from now on. The Wuthering Heights album might be one of my favorites this year. The album is available on all mainstream music streaming platforms.

The sexuality was on another level. I’m a sucker for historical bodice rippers, so I thoroughly enjoyed the explicit scenes. Heathcliff and Cathy’s energy was so raw and erotic. It felt real while also keeping that sexual fantasy vibe. I also enjoyed Heathcliff’s and Isabella’s sexual encounters, which were more taboo than him and Cathy’s. I definitely felt bad for Mr. Linton though. 

However, this does not mean I do not have any criticisms of this film either. 

The film started very abruptly, and was rather confusing.But it seemed to just throw you right in head-first. Dare I say, the confusion about what was going on since it throws us right into the dynamics of the family instead of worldbuilding. almost had the film lose my attention. 

I also felt like we didn’t get to see much emotional depth with the two main characters. I didn’t feel very emotionally attached to them, so when Cathy died I didn’t feel upset. We didn’t get enough scenes of them together, so when Heathcliff finds her dead, I honestly didn’t feel sad at all. It was very anticlimactic and they could’ve added some more compelling scenes to change that up. 

Overall, I give this movie a score of 8/10. I would definitely watch it again. My opinion might change after I read the book, but as a standalone film, it’s one of the best to come out this year.