WUTHERING HEIGHTS (2026) Movie Review: Emerald Fennell's Breathless, Carnal Adaptation Burns Bright and Bold
- Joao Nsita
- 22 hours ago
- 10 min read
Opening Scene
There is a particular kind of love story that does not seek your approval. It doesn't knock politely at the door, ask if you're comfortable, or check whether you've had enough. It simply arrives — wild-eyed and mud-soaked — grabs you by the collar and drags you across the moors whether you're ready or not. That is exactly the experience of watching Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights (2026), now streaming on HBO Max after a blazing $242 million theatrical run. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, two people so consumed by one another they seem to exist outside the laws of ordinary human decency. Fennell — the Oscar-winning mind behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn — brings her signature cocktail of lush visuals, moral ambiguity, and barely-contained eroticism to Emily Brontë's timeless, tortured love story. The result is a film that is simultaneously intoxicating, infuriating, and impossible to look away from. Does it honour the source material? Not always. Does it set the screen on fire? Absolutely.
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Plot Summary
Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is one of literature's most celebrated, most imitated, and most argued-about love stories. At its heart is a simple, devastating premise: two people who belong to each other in a way the world refuses to recognise. Fennell's adaptation keeps the bones of that story intact but rewires its circuitry with a distinctly modern, unapologetically provocative sensibility.
We meet Heathcliff as a child — a foundling brought home by the kindly Mr Earnshaw to live alongside his own children on the wild Yorkshire moors. From the very beginning, his connection with Catherine is unlike anything the Earnshaw family has ever witnessed. They are, in the film's most quietly devastating early line, "the same person wearing different skin." But the world will not allow them to simply be. Class, convention, and cruelty conspire to separate them. Catherine chooses to marry the genteel Edgar Linton — played with elegant restraint by Shazad Latif — while Heathcliff disappears for years, returning as a wealthy, bitter, and magnetic force of nature who proceeds to dismantle everything and everyone standing between him and what he considers his.
Fennell's version trims the novel's sprawling two-generation narrative, focusing tightly on Catherine and Heathcliff's central tragedy. The decision allows for intensity of focus but inevitably means some of the story's darker, longer-game vengeance threads are abbreviated. What remains, however, is a film absolutely drunk on its own central romance — and there are far worse things a love story could be guilty of.
Director's Style and Cinematic Elements
Emerald Fennell is one of contemporary cinema's most singularly provocative voices, and Wuthering Heights confirms she is operating at the height of her powers, even when those powers occasionally overwhelm the material. Her approach to the moors of Yorkshire — shot with aching, painterly beauty by cinematographer Laurie Rose — treats the landscape less as backdrop and more as a third character. The fog rolls in like grief. The bracken twists like longing. Every wide shot feels like it belongs in a gallery and on a broken heart simultaneously.
What distinguishes Fennell's direction most is her willingness to make this adaptation deeply, unapologetically carnal. Brontë's novel has always been charged with erotic energy, but filmmakers have traditionally approached that tension with Victorian caution. Fennell has no such caution. She understands that Catherine and Heathcliff's bond is not merely romantic — it is physical, spiritual, and, at times, disturbing. The film's most controversial scenes push into genuinely raw territory, which will alienate some viewers and electrify others.
The production design by Alice Normington is stunning. The Linton estate — all polished marble and suffocating luxury — is rendered as a beautiful prison. Heathcliff's Wuthering Heights is wind-blasted and alive. The costumes by Jenny Beavan feel authentically period without ever becoming museum pieces. The score, composed by Nicholas Britell, pulses with romantic anguish, drawing on folk influences and chamber strings to create something both ancient and raw.
For a deeper look at the film's technical achievements, see the full entry at Rotten Tomatoes.
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Themes and Deeper Meaning
At its core, Wuthering Heights has always been about the violence of longing — the way an unfulfilled love doesn't simply hurt, but destroys. Fennell understands this completely, and she builds her entire film around that principle. Catherine and Heathcliff don't simply love each other; they are each other's unresolved wound.
The film speaks powerfully to class and belonging. Heathcliff is an outsider — racially ambiguous (as in Brontë's original), economically disadvantaged, and perpetually reminded of his otherness. The cruelty visited upon him by Hindley Earnshaw and the society around him is not incidental; it is the engine of the tragedy.
Fennell makes this explicit in ways the novel only implies, drawing direct lines between systemic exclusion and individual devastation. The film asks an uncomfortable question: what does society create when it consistently tells someone they are less than? The answer it offers is Heathcliff — not a monster born, but a monster made.
The film also grapples with the self-destructiveness of choosing security over love — a theme as relevant in 2026 as it was in 1847. Catherine's choice of Edgar over Heathcliff is not simply a betrayal of passion; it is a betrayal of self. Fennell's Catherine knows this, and that knowledge hollows her out slowly and irreversibly. It is a portrait of a woman who made the "sensible" choice and paid for it with her soul.
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Acting Performances
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are the film's greatest achievement and its most compelling argument. Robbie has spent years proving she is one of the finest actors of her generation, and her Catherine Earnshaw is a masterclass in controlled disintegration. She plays Catherine's early wildness with exhilarating freedom, but the real work comes later — watching Catherine slowly become a ghost of herself while still technically alive. There is a particular scene near the film's midpoint, where Catherine stares out a rain-lashed window and says simply, "I am Heathcliff — and he is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same," that ranks among the most heartbreaking moments in recent cinema.
Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff is brutal, magnetic, and profoundly sad. Elordi leans into the character's darkness without flinching, but he never lets us lose sight of the wounded boy beneath the rage. The supporting cast — particularly Hong Chau as Mrs Dean and Alison Oliver as Isabella — bring necessary warmth and complexity to roles that could easily become mere furniture.
Strengths
The single greatest strength of Fennell's Wuthering Heights is its commitment. This is a film that believes entirely in itself. It makes bold choices — stylistic, tonal, narrative — and executes them with total conviction. In an era when major studio films often sand down every rough edge to ensure broad palatability, here is a romantic drama that wears its darkness proudly. It trusts its audience to handle complexity, moral ambiguity, and genuine passion.
The visual language of the film is consistently extraordinary. From the golden, dream-soaked flashbacks of childhood on the moors to the blue-grey desolation of Heathcliff's return, every frame is composed with obsessive care. Laurie Rose's cinematography makes the Yorkshire landscape feel eternal and specific all at once — this is not a generic "period film" backdrop, but a living, breathing world that shapes and reflects the people within it.
The film's pacing — brisk for a classic adaptation — serves it well. Fennell cuts away from sentimentality before it can become saccharine, keeping the story propulsive even when its emotional register is devastating. For audiences accustomed to more leisurely literary adaptations, this can initially feel jarring, but it ultimately respects the novel's own fierce momentum.
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Areas for Improvement
The film's greatest weakness is, perhaps inevitably, the other side of its greatest strength. Fennell's commitment to the central romance means everything else operates somewhat in the shadow. The second half of Brontë's novel — with its generational vengeance, the younger Catherine, and Hareton — is almost entirely excised. Purists will feel the loss keenly, and there is a genuine argument that the story's full emotional payoff requires this longer arc.
Additionally, while the film's carnality is largely handled with artistry, there are moments where it tips from provocative into gratuitous — scenes that feel designed to shock rather than to illuminate. Fennell has always walked this line deliberately, but a few moments in Wuthering Heights feel more like provocation for its own sake than a genuine deepening of the characters' psychology. The 57% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes reflects this split — a genuinely divisive film that will thrill as many as it frustrates.
Comparative Analysis
Fennell's Wuthering Heights invites comparison to several recent works. Most obviously, it sits in dialogue with Andrea Arnold's 2011 adaptation — a critically acclaimed version that leaned into raw, naturalistic filmmaking and cast mixed-race actors as the younger Heathcliff and Catherine. Arnold's version is grittier, less glamorous, and in some ways more faithful. Fennell's is more overtly cinematic and more explicitly erotic, trading Arnold's intimate hand-held approach for studied, gorgeous compositions.
It also draws comparison to Fennell's own Saltburn (2023), which similarly examined obsessive desire, class, and transgression with a dark, stylised sensibility. Fans of Saltburn will find much to love here; those who found that film's darkness excessive may struggle with Wuthering Heights too.
For those seeking similarly epic romantic dramas, you might also consider:
Atonement (2007) — available on Amazon Prime Video
Jane Eyre (2011, dir. Cary Fukunaga) — available on Amazon
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) — available on Amazon Prime
Target Audience
Wuthering Heights (2026) is emphatically not a film for everyone, and it makes no apologies for that. It is rated R, and earns that rating — there is significant sexual content, emotional violence, and thematic darkness throughout. Audiences who love lush, emotionally intense romantic dramas will find it deeply rewarding. Fans of Fennell's previous work — particularly Promising Young Woman and Saltburn — will recognize and appreciate her sensibility here. Literature lovers who have long dreamed of a truly grown-up, unapologetic adaptation of Brontë will find much to celebrate, even if they mourn certain omissions.
Those seeking a cosy, heartwarming romantic drama will want to look elsewhere. This film bruises you. That is very much the point.
Personal Impact
I watched Wuthering Heights on a Sunday night in February, the kind of cold, grey evening that seems purpose-built for stories about longing. By the film's final act — which I will not spoil, except to say it is both beautiful and bleak — I found myself sitting in the dark after the credits rolled, not quite ready to return to the ordinary world. That is perhaps the highest compliment I can pay a film. Robbie's Catherine stayed with me for days — the image of her standing at that rain-lashed window, reciting Brontë's words with such quiet devastation, an image I cannot shake. This film broke something open in me. That, ultimately, is what the best love stories do.
Conclusion and Final Verdict
Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is a flawed, fearless, deeply felt piece of cinema. It will not be the definitive adaptation — no single film can contain everything Brontë put into those pages — but it is the boldest, most cinematically alive version in decades. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are extraordinary. The film is gorgeous, raw, and emotionally devastating. If you can handle the darkness, you will not regret spending two hours on the moors.
Where to watch: Wuthering Heights (2026) is now streaming on HBO Max.
Verdict: 7.5/10 — Passionate, provocative, and deeply cinematic. A romance that burns.
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FAQs: Wuthering Heights (2026)
1. Is Wuthering Heights (2026) worth watching? Absolutely — if you have a taste for dark, emotionally intense romantic dramas. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are stunning, and Emerald Fennell's direction is visually extraordinary. It's not a comfortable watch, but it is an unforgettable one.
2. Where can I watch Wuthering Heights (2026)? The film is now streaming on HBO Max in the United States. It was previously available in theatres from February 13, 2026.
3. Is Wuthering Heights (2026) faithful to the book? It is loosely faithful to the central romance but significantly condenses the novel's second half, removing the generational plotlines involving young Cathy and Hareton. It captures the spirit of Brontë's passion but takes considerable creative liberties.
4. Is Wuthering Heights (2026) appropriate for children? No. The film is rated R for sexual content, emotional violence, and mature themes. It is firmly intended for adult audiences.
5. What is the Rotten Tomatoes score for Wuthering Heights (2026)? The film holds a 57% critics score and an 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — reflecting a genuine divide between critical reception and audience enthusiasm.
6. How long is Wuthering Heights (2026)? The film runs approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes.
7. Does Wuthering Heights (2026) have a happy ending? In keeping with Brontë's original, the ending is bittersweet rather than conventionally happy. This is a tragedy rooted in love — expect to cry.
8. Is the 2026 Wuthering Heights better than the 2011 version? Both films have tremendous merit. Fennell's version is more glossy and more overtly sexual; Arnold's 2011 version is grittier and more naturalistic. Many fans will love both for different reasons.
9. Why is Wuthering Heights (2026) controversial? The film has divided critics primarily over Emerald Fennell's stylistic choices — some find the carnality revelatory, others find it excessive. The 57/84 split on Rotten Tomatoes reflects this division clearly.
10. Who wrote the screenplay for Wuthering Heights (2026)? Emerald Fennell wrote the screenplay herself, in addition to directing the film.
About the Director: Emerald Fennell
Emerald Fennell is a British actor, writer, and filmmaker whose directorial career has been defined by fearless, provocative work that refuses categorisation. Born in 1985, she first came to broad attention as an actor in The Crown and Killing Eve, before making her feature directorial debut with Promising Young Woman (2020), which won her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Her follow-up, Saltburn (2023), became a cultural phenomenon. With Wuthering Heights (2026), she cements her status as one of cinema's most boldly original voices. Fennell is not a filmmaker who makes safe choices — and that is precisely what makes her work so necessary.
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