Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" was inspired by the Saltburn director's first adolescent experience of reading Emily Brontë's 1847 classic.
For historical fiction researcher Stephanie Russo, the "smooth-brained" reimagining reads more like a film adaptation of a 14-year-old's AI-generated book report.
Wanting to turn a story about racism, power, and violent generational trauma into a "sexy bodice-ripper" is one thing, the Macquarie University Associate Professor of Literature argues in her "zero-star" review.
But Fennell's casting of Australian actor Jacob Elordi as the racially ambiguous Heathcliff, alongside the "supernaturally beautiful" Margot Robbie as Cathy, removes the forbidden from their romance.
"I absolutely hated this film," Russo says. "This film is not for Wuthering Heights or classic literature fans. It's for Robbie and Elordi fans who want to see two of the hottest stars in Hollywood get it on. Smooth-brained is the perfect description."
In Russo's opinion, Fennell's take on the Gothic masterwork represents the pinnacle of art's "memeification." In this new landscape, source material is merely a marketing ploy that mines disconnected aesthetics for titillation – and Valetine's Day ticket sales – yet "fails to be any steamier than the average Bridgerton episode."
The academic, who is not an "adaptation purist," praised films like Clueless – a remake of Jane Austen's Emma – for reviving the spirit of source material through a modern lens. However, she found Fennell's dressing of Margot Robbie like Gone With Wind Barbie– both on-screen and on the red carpet– "doubly suspect."
"On top of removing the race elements from the novel, to have one of your visual inspirations be a famously racist film stretches the limits of plausible deniability." It takes on a "garish music video quality," Russo says, adding that Charli XCX's soundtrack was her one high note.
"I thought if Fennell trafficked in pure aesthetics, those would at least be interesting. But they weren't."
Multiple scenes involving gooey eggs and close-ups of slimy snails landed as "shock value" gimmicks, designed for five-second clips rather than narrative depth. And despite a marketing campaign promising a dark, erotic epic, Russo calls he much-hyped sex scene surprisingly "muted".
"A fresh take is fantastic, but I want to see some sort of engagement with the actual text," she says.
"The spirit of the original, especially for a classic like this, should be felt. Fennell seems to be working against the novel, which is way more subversive and transgressive.
"In the book, there is this tantalising suggestion that perhaps Heathcliff and Cathy are brother and sister," Russo explains. "Cathy's father Mr Earnshaw goes away to Liverpool and he comes back with this dark boy, Heathcliff, who he introduces as his ward."
In 18th-Centure life and literature, noblemen often disguised their illegitimate children as wards. Brontë's Heathcliff is described as "a dark-skinned gypsy" and a "dirty, ragged, black-haired child."
Cathy's older brother Hindley, who is heir to Wuthering Heights, physically abuses Heathcliff and forces him to work in the stables as a servant. In Fennell's film, Cathy names Heathcliff after her "dead brother" – deleting the antagonist entirely.
"Emerald strips everything away so there's no real barrier or stakes to Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship," Russo says. "It's very unclear why they can't be together, other than she married the wrong dude by mistake because she liked his house and wanted nice things."
One of the most concerning departures Russo notes is the treatment of Heathcliff's wife, Isabella Linton. While the novel uses Isabella to critique the dangerous romanticisation of abusers, the film depicts her as a "willing BDSM submissive who barks like a dog."
Isabella believes Heathcliff to be the mysterious, brooding hero, and marries him. She is beaten and brutalised, causing her to run away while pregnant to raise their child alone.
"The film goes against the real critique Emily Brontë is staging," Russo explains. "In the novel, Isabella realises Heathcliff is not romantic—he is a violent abuser. This film suggests that abuse is actually sexy."
Wuthering Heights has seen many film adaptations, with the first released in 1939. Almost all of them, including Fennell's film, leave the second half of the novel and its most significant themes on the cutting-room floor.
The novel is a multigenerational saga set between 1771 and 1802.
Though Heathcliff and Cathy's relationship is a significant part of the story, Cathy dies at age 18. Heathcliff spends the rest of the novel carrying out a revenge scheme that involves torturing everyone around him, including his own son, the son of a man who abused him, and the daughter Cathy gave birth to just before she died.
After Isabella dies, Heathcliff calls their son, Linton, back to Wuthering Heights. He forces Cathy's daughter, also named Cathy, to marry Linton (her first cousin) while simultaneously preventing her from seeing her dying father. This allows Heathcliff to gain full possession of Edgar Linton's estate.
By leaving out this second generation, "You lose the idea that Heathcliff is perpetuating a cycle of abuse," Russo says, "which is the whole point."
"You also miss the redemptive romance between Cathy's daughter and Hareton that ultimately purifies Wuthering Heights by breaking that cycle. It's cut from almost all films to focus on this romanticised and aestheticised vision of what is a violent, terrible story."
In a now-viral review, one disappointed viewer surmised: "Emily Brontë died of Tuberculosis at the age of 30, but this is still the worst thing that's ever happened to her."
