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A favorite movie sub-genre of mine is literary classics remade as contemporary teen movies. “Clueless” (1995), which transports the characters and contents of Jane Austen’s “Emma” to 1990’s Beverly Hills, is the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. But many other works, from Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” have benefited from the same treatment, repackaged for modern audiences as “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) and “Easy A” (2010), respectively.
These remakes are fun, campy, and usually a bit goofy. But even while taking plenty of liberties with plot and setting, they demonstrate the staying power of the works they’re adapting. The mistaken identities and romantic hijinks at the core of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” entertain us whether the story takes place on the Adriatic Coast or the New England prep school featured in “She’s the Man” (2006).
Promotional trailer for “Wuthering Heights” (2026). (Credit: Warner Bros. via YouTube)
“Wuthering Heights” (2026) is a different take on these contemporary teen adaptations. Filmmaker Emerald Fennell (“Saltburn,” “Promising Young Woman”) doesn’t modernize the story’s setting. She leaves her young protagonists, Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), at least nominally where they originated in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel: on the moors of Yorkshire, England in the late 1700s. But instead of a dark tale of cruelty and revenge, Fennell treats the story as an opportunity for a steamy, romantic romp, replete with striking visuals and a dark-pop soundtrack courtesy of it-girl Charli xcx. This tone shift, as well as the heavily sanitized and truncated plot, was inspired by Fennell’s understanding of the book as she “remembered reading” it at the age of 14, according to an interview with Fandango.
In Fennell’s quest to make a more juvenile version of “Wuthering Heights” (her inclusion of quotation marks in the movie’s title should be taken as a warning), she dispenses with the novel’s lessons about violent cycles of abuse in favor of hormone-driven naivety. But just because someone does something on purpose does not mean it’s a good idea, and I left the theater unconvinced by Fennell’s vision. Sure, it was gorgeous to look at, if you’re into maximalist/gothic/pop-art mishmashes (which it turns out, I really, really am. And don’t even get me started on the fabulous costuming). Still, the movie chooses style over substance at best, and at worst, it willfully misinterprets the source material, much to its detriment.
Fanciful set design and costuming make “Wuthering Heights” (2026) a treat to look at. But I wish it had been a music video rather than a feature film. (Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb)
Hold on a second. If I’m willing to accept “10 Things I Hate About You” as an enjoyable adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew” (a controversial Shakespeare play that centers on the oppression of women), what’s so wrong with Fennell’s romanticization of “Wuthering Heights”? Is replacing the brutish Petruchio with Heath Ledger’s charming Patrick any different from Fennell’s choice to excise the worst of Heathcliff’s nature from the story? Aren’t they both abusive men, rehabilitated in the eyes of the audience by Hollywood heartthrobs and gentler storylines?
That’s all true. But despite these similarities, it doesn’t feel like the same thing. One reason may be that “10 Things” and most of the other movies in the classics-turned-teen genre are romantic comedies. They wink at their original source material, while making no serious claims to it. Fennell, on the other hand, chose to make a fantasy version of “Wuthering Heights,” cutting out the darkest elements of the book while still attempting to celebrate “a version” of the story. (This version notably has a lot more sex, kink, and suggestive contemplation of egg yolks than Brontë probably imagined.) Unfortunately, the result is an adaptation that is too light and frivolous to convey the substance of the original novel, but is too serious for me to not mind the betrayal of the novel’s themes. This awkward middle ground leaves Fennell with a disappointingly empty romance.
Beauty and Isolation
Interestingly enough, the most faithful part of the adaptation is the landscape, which was filmed on location on the moors of Yorkshire. But while the rugged backdrop certainly contributes to the novel’s gothic aesthetic, the movie exaggerates the rural setting even further, imbuing it with fairy-tale levels of remoteness and beauty.
Acute isolation is critical to the film’s plot, which revolves around the complex and twisted relationships between a handful of characters who never seem to encounter anyone else. This is true of the book as well, though a number of additional characters and more porous comings and goings make the novel’s isolation less extreme.
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in “Wuthering Heights” (2026). Constant rain, wind, and fog underscore the social isolation and inner turmoil of the characters. (Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb)
Cathy and Heathcliff’s decaying childhood home of Wuthering Heights is located several miles from the closest house, the stately and manicured Thrushcross Grange. Cathy’s father (Martin Clunes), her maid Nelly (Hong Chau), and two other servants round out the total inhabitants of the Heights. Presumably there are a larger number of servants at the Grange, but the book and film are only interested in its upper-class inhabitants, Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) and his ward Isabella (Alison Oliver).
With the exception of the movie’s opening scene, all of the action is set on the moors. As in the book, we do not know where Heathcliff goes for several years when he leaves Wuthering Heights, whether to a city or to another country or a different continent. But having left the moors, he might as well have gone to the moon as far as Cathy is concerned. A montage sequence showing how Cathy spends the years of Heathcliff’s absence in the constant company of Edgar and Isabella underscores the characters’ complete seclusion from any other community.
Fennell contrasts the moors’ natural beauty with The Grange’s candy-colored artifice. (Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb)
This social isolation is enhanced by Yorkshire’s dismal weather and wild beauty. The moors’ few inhabitants are continually buffeted by wind and rain, creating a dreary but mystical backdrop for the story. (There’s also enough mist to inspire another Stephen King novella.) The landscape and atmosphere also serve as symbolic manifestations of the characters’ emotions and relationships. Fennell’s use of the moors’ varied features – at first to represent careless freedom, then intimacy, then claustrophobic tensions – is especially effective. The contrast between the rugged, natural beauty of the landscape and the candy-colored artifice of the Grange provides additional visual evidence of Cathy’s betrayal of Heathcliff.
But set design, no matter how striking, is not enough to save a movie that seems so content to say so little. It’s easier to enjoy the movie when I stop comparing it to the book, but I still feel that Fennell prioritized shock value and visual impact over good storytelling. Even the steamy relationship at the center of the romance falls flat, despite all the corsets, sideburns, and gorgeous Australians involved. In glossing over the ugliness and complexity of Brontë’s original work, Fennell has also discarded the emotional depth that makes the original “Wuthering Heights” such a powerful story.
“Wuthering Heights” is currently playing in theaters.
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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