Film Review - Wuthering Heights (2026)

Wuthering Heights is based off of the novel and stars Margot Robbie as Cathy, a young woman who falls in love with Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) but as the 2 are poor their love cannot last so Cathy falls for a rich neighbour next door as Heathcliff leaves but when 2 people fall in love passionately those passions can’t be hidden forever.

Wuthering Heights is a mixed bag for me, first off the film is well made and well directed, Emerald Fennell has proven herself to be a good director with Promising Young Woman and Saltburn and while I hated the latter film it did have some good moments and her direction in this movie is nice and lush along with Linus Sandgren’s cinematography, Jacqueline Durran’s costume design and the production design by Suzie Davies which all look great on a big cinema screen and bring you into this world very well.

But where this version falls short is in its casting, Robbie more and more is becoming a better producer than actress as in the wrong hands she can be not that great on screen and here so very many of her scenes are just her staring off into the distance, tears streaking down from her eyes and looking forlorn that her beloved Heathcliff has left her behind and after a while it just got ridiculous to watch and part of me couldn’t help but wonder if Fennell might have been better to get her Promising Young Woman lead Carey Mulligan to play this part instead because I think she would’ve been able to sell the sadness and tragedy at the heart of that character much better.

And then there’s Elordi and his casting feels worse especially after he earned himself a well deserved Oscar nomination for his work in Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein as the title character itself but like Robbie Elordi struggles to sell the pathos and dark core of the character first off because of his accent which starts off bordering on Ocker (and so much so he could’ve done ads selling XXXX Beer) and then towards the end of the film his British accent he starts sounding like Dave Lister from Red Dwarf.

And also while watching him I couldn’t help but compare him to Timothy Dalton who played that character in a previous film adaptation and as good as Elordi is he simply doesn’t compare to Dalton who I’m certain would’ve brought the necessary brutishness and cold heartedness this character requires.

And so that was Wuthering Heights and my hopes for this were mixed and my feelings towards this movie are mixed, Fennell is a good director and does her job well and it looks great but Robbie and Elordi just fall short in their roles and because of that this movie lacks that heartfelt core it desperately needs, 2 out of 5.