Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights has been controversial ever since it was announced. People simply didn’t trust Fennell to adapt the classic novel, and they certainly weren’t happy with the casting choices for Cathy and Heathcliff: Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. When paparazzi snapped photos from the production, there were more waves of disappointment – Fennell didn’t seem to care about accurate period details, and Margot simply looks way too old to play Catherine (who is supposed to be a teenager). There were also significant complaints about the “whitewashing” of Heathcliff.
Well, about a month ago, Fennell and studio organized some of the first screenings for the film, and most of the audience f–king despised this adaptation. World of Reel reported that “The film, described by one attendee as aggressively provocative and tonally abrasive, leans hard into Fennell’s now-familiar brand of stylized depravity. It’s a deliberately unromantic take on Brontë’s novel, stripped of emotional nuance and full of salacious detours that serve shock value.” I have no idea if those screenings convinced Fennell to re-edit or change anything, but it doesn’t look like it. The teaser for Wuthering Heights came out this week and it looks TERRIBLE.
Yeah, this just looks awful. In case you’re wondering, that’s new music by CharliXCX in the trailer. LMAO. Two of the nicer arguments being made: one, if Fennell wanted to do a big, sexy, BDSM-tinged period romance, she probably should have just written an original script and not claimed that it was an adaptation of one of the biggest classic novels in the English language; two, Elordi probably could have pulled this off, but Margot absolutely CANNOT. I love Margot and I think she’s an underrated actress (truly) but she can’t play EVERY character, you know?
Screencaps courtesy of the trailer, poster courtesy of Warner Bros.
