Wuthering Heights (2026) Warner Bros./Drama RT: 136 minutes Rated R (sexual content, some violent content, language) Director: Emerald Fennell Screenplay: Emerald Fennell Music: Anthony Willis Cinematography: Linus Sandgren Release date: February 13, 2026 (US) Cast: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell, Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper.
Rating: * ½
It’s not your grandmother’s Wuthering Heights. It’s not a Merchant Ivory production of the Emily Bronte novel. It’s definitely not a date movie. The new Wuthering Heights is- how should I put it?- a dumpster fire.
Filmmaker Emerald Fennell has a distinctive voice as illustrated by her other two films, Promising Young Woman (2020) and Saltburn (2023). She describes her take on Wuthering Heights not as an adaptation but as a version of the novel. She strips it down to the bare bones to tell a story of two doomed lovers who pay a heavy price for their feelings. I’ll grant that her vision is bold, but in this particular case it’s more of a liability than an asset.
For all of its heavy-handedness, Wuthering Heights is both overwrought and emotionally hollow. It demands that the viewer feel something, but fails to deliver anything worth giving a damn about. This could be attributed to several factors, but the main cause is the lack of chemistry between the leads, Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein). They may be two of the hottest actors right now, but they generate no heat as star-crossed lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Elordi is especially wooden (he doesn’t act; he broods) not to mention miscast. Heathcliff is supposed to be dark-skinned. Having a white actor play the character is the opposite of bold.
Fennell disposes of the book’s framing device and in doing that, loses the haunting aspect that defines the novel. What we get instead is a trashy, dumbed-down story that begins when Catherine’s drunken boor of a father (Clunes, Men Behaving Badly) brings home an unnamed orphan boy with the intention of providing proper care for him. Catherine names him Heathcliff and the two form a bond. They grow up and realize life is complicated. They love each other, but she needs to marry into money to save her family from financial ruin.
Heathcliff overhears Catherine talking to housemaid and longtime companion Nelly (Chau, The Whale) about her plan to marry wealthy new neighbor Edgar Linton (Latif, Penny Dreadful). What Heathcliff doesn’t hear is her professing her love for him. He jumps on a horse and rides off into the sunset before she can explain. She marries Edgar and settles into a comfortable life at his estate, but still longs for Heathcliff to return.
Heathcliff comes back a wealthy man five years later. It’s not exactly a joyful reunion. He still resents Catherine for marrying Edgar. He doesn’t do a good job of hiding it either. They nonetheless begin an intense affair that ultimately leads to tragedy, part of which involves Heathcliff marrying Edgar’s naïve young ward Isabella (Oliver, Saltburn) out of spite.
About the only thing Wuthering Heights has going for it is the cinematography by Linus Sandgren. The English moors, covered in fog and overcast skies, are inherently dramatic. They usually look good on film. However, Fennell weaponizes the imagery too, using it with the subtlety of a sledge hammer to let us know we’re supposed to be feeling something. I felt two things, boredom and exhaustion. Nope, make it three, disgust.
Using contemporary pop songs in period romances isn’t unprecedented. Baz Luhrmann did it in his modern-day set Romeo + Juliet (1996) and it was a success. The soundtrack worked with the story. The Charli XCX songs in Wuthering Heights do nothing to serve the narrative. They distract from it. It’s a total disconnect. Also, the songs aren’t even that good. I can’t remember a single one. Then again, I’m not a Charli XCX fan so yeah.
Try as they might, the actors don’t bring their characters or the material to life. It’s all fairly listless. Nobody’s fully committed. Catherine, as played by Robbie, comes off as a beautiful idiot. She gives a slightly better performance than Elordi, but not by much. Chau is criminally underserved by the screenplay. She’s barely developed even though she’s a crucial character. Oliver’s character is simply annoying.
I’d like to think that anybody interested in seeing Wuthering Heights is familiar with the source, but I’d probably be wrong in making that assumption. Young people these days are more interested in Netflix shows than Victorian literature. The studio is marketing it as the must-see romantic film for this Valentine’s Day weekend. That is false advertising. While it’s true it’s a love story, it’s not a celebration of love. It’s dark, depressing and often ugly. It’s populated by unlikable characters. It has mental illness and human degradation. Anybody not familiar with the story is in for a real shock. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.
