Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' Could Use A Little More Smut

I suspect the majority of Wuthering Heights attendees this weekend will be fans of the source material eager to see Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi embody the roles of their beloved Cathy and Heathcliff. I also suspect this weekend will be rife with people explaining how different this particular adaptation is from the book they so dearly love. There is also a good chance these people will be somewhat scandalized by the, let's say, smuttiness of Emerald Fennell's adaptation. Now, for the record, I will not be one of these people.

I came to Wuthering Heights precisely for the Emerald Fennell of it all, which I assume puts me in the minority – simply because, at least I'm guessing, there are going to be more fans out there of Emily Brontë's 180-year-old literary classic than there are going to be fans of the director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn. But, again, I fall into this latter category. Which creates an interesting dynamic because, on the "outrageous" scale, this is a fairly outrageous interpretation of Wuthering Heights. But it's also the least outrageous of Emerald Fennell's three feature films. In other words, there are no scenes of anyone licking bodily fluids out of a bathtub in Wuthering Heights, for better or worse.

One day, while in town, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes*) takes in a young street ruffian named Heathcliff and brings him back to his estate, Wuthering Heights, to be a part of his family. When given some thought, this does seem like brash and impulsive decision that would probably raise a lot of questions in modern society. Nevertheless, over the years, Heathcliff and is adoptive sister, Cathy, form an inseparable bond. Well, at least until a wealthy family, the Lintons, purchases the estate next door. Cathy snoops around the neighbor's estate, eventually becoming smitten with at least the idea of marrying Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif). Heathcliff is very happy for Cathy and remains supportive. That is a lie. Heathcliff does not like any of this and eventually leaves Wuthering Heights.

*Martin Clunes plays the title character in the British television series Doc Martin, which was recently adapted in the United States as Best Medicine, with Josh Charles now playing the title character, renamed Dr. Martin Best. I simply cannot escape this show.

Eventually Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights with a much more generous wardrobe budget. He is no longer the Heathcliff we used to know, raking leaves in his tattered rags. He is now officially a handsome man. Which we believe because Jacob Elordi is also a handsome man. Which is interesting because, over the last few months, we've now twice seen Elordi play misunderstood, yet clever and dashing brutes. In Frankenstein, this paid off with an Oscar nomination he will most likely lose to Stellan Skarsgård. In Wuthering Heights, this would have paid off by being on the cover of Bop magazine, if Bop magazine still existed. So, instead, he will probably have to settle for "adulation from his devoted fans." Or maybe a People's Choice* award.

*Out of curiosity, I looked up who won the People's Choice award in 2025, but there was no People's Choice award in 2025. The last People's Choice award was given two years ago, in February of 2024. Apparently in 2025 the People either could not decide or were never given a choice in the first place. As it turns out, Elordi was nominated for a People's Choice award the last year the People actually had a say in these matters. Elordi was nominated for The Drama Movie Star of the Year, which should not be confused for The Action Movie Star of the Year or The Male Movie Star of the Year. Elordi lost the People's Choice award to Jenna Ortega.

Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is certainly well made and well crafted, but kind of falls into the section of the Venn diagram where the liberties taken will most likely rub fans of the book the wrong way, yet they are nowhere near outrageous enough to appease people like me who were expecting something truly scandalous. Which, to be fair, is probably what Fennell was going for in the first place. If she had taken the smuttiness up a few more notches, it is no longer an adaptation of Wuthering Heights and becomes a parody of Wuthering Heights. If she does an extremely faithful adaption of the book, it's not an Emerald Fennell film. So, because of this, we get this version of Wuthering Heights, which will most likely placate no one ... which certainly is the definition of an Emerald Fennell film.

Grade: B-