Wuthering Heights gets skewered in first reviews: Margot Robbie’s film is called ‘smooth-brained’, ‘hollow’
Wuthering Heights first reviews out: The first reviews of Emerald Fennell’s much-anticipated Wuthering Heights have arrived, and they paint a sharply divided picture of the filmmaker’s audacious take on Emily Brontë’s classic novel. Starring Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, the adaptation has sparked intense debate among critics, with most calling it a hollow misfire. Wuthering Heights 1st reviews out: Critics are divided on Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation. Some describe it as an emotionally hollow misfire, while others appreciate its stylised approach Critics divided over Wuthering Heights casting The Independent described the film as “an astonishingly hollow work.” The review argued that Fennell uses the guise of interpretation to strip the novel of its emotional violence and complexity, replacing it with marketable romance tropes. While acknowledging that many adaptations only cover the first half of the book, a tradition dating back to the 1939 film, the critic suggested that tone, not accuracy, is the central issue. An excerpt from The Independent review read, “With its title stylised in quotation marks, …
