I think it’s clever that Wuthering Heights features actors who have some of the most beautiful faces in the industry today. Superficial as it sounds, their looks are most probably the only thing that will keep you from disliking the movie. Or I could be wrong.

Because the movie is delightfully indulgent.

I haven’t finished the Emily Brontë classic but I know pretty much what happened to Catherine and Heathcliff because of their passionate yet destructive feelings. The multi-generational story offers a very rich material with all the love, revenge, and even the supernatural but Emerald Fennell’s adaptation covers only a part of the entire story.

And that’s not exactly a bad thing.

It’s clear from the get-go that this was going to be about the relationship between Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and its impact on the people around them. While marketed as a love story, the movie is anything but romantic.

It’s a cautionary tale about how destructive love becomes when coupled with self-interest and entitlement. The movie succeeds in this aspect.

It even makes me wonder if the script was intentionally written to be like that.

The movie opens with a hanging where people cheer on as an individual slowly faces death, in the most excruciating way possible. This immediately tells me the overall tone of the movie is.

It will not be sympathetic.  

It would be anything but the kind of love story that make the butterflies in your gut flutter.

In one frame, a group of kids mocks the hanged man pointing at his ‘stiffy’ as his body convulses during the last few moments of his life. And then we see a shot of a young Catherine, looking up, screaming as if in rage.

Back home, she gets mad at her friend Nelly for making her watch the hanging when the young girl actually insisted on going. And then a few scenes later, after her father took the young Heathcliff in, she insisted on them staying out longer to wait until the rain stops even though the young boy is worried about her father getting mad.

These signal the entitlement and selfishness that would shape Catherine’s decisions later on in life.

Catherine and Heathcliff would grow up secretly in love with each other. But when her father gambled away their money, Catherine was forced to make a decision between following her heart and securing her future. She chooses the latter and decides to marry Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif).

But not before confessing her true feelings to Nelly (Hong Chau), which Heathcliff accidentally overhears a small part of. He misinterprets Catherine’s confession. Feeling betrayed and insulted, he runs away.  

Several years passed. Catherine is the lady of Thrushcross Grange. She’s comfortable but lacks joy. Oh, and she’s also with child. Heathcliff, meanwhile, has become wealthy and has purchased Wuthering Heights.      

His return reignites the old flame inside Catherine’s soul. Heathcliff, despite still being in love, is out for revenge. They soon give in and consummate their love until Catherine realizes it’s not right. She ends things, which brought Heathcliff to the edge. He then elopes with Edgar’s sister, Isabella (Alison Oliver), as a vengeful act. Catherine realizes she can’t bear losing Heathcliff to anyone and she spirals into depression.

This is a story about two awful characters making bad choices in life.

Catherine reeks of entitlement and selfishness. Heathcliff oozes with vengeance and cruelty. Their only saving grace would have been the fact that they truly loved one another. But then again, that is what started this whole mess in the first place.

Or is it the lack of communication?

Either way, it’s interesting how all these are accurate metaphors of toxic relationships that plague so many people. It’s not even just that. The fates of the two lovers are deeply connected to social class and status. These are themes that I would have loved to see more of unfold.

Regardless, Fennell’s version of the story has enough legs. It may have left out a lot of the events in the novel, but the point in which the movie ended did not leave any loose end. There’s closure in the ending.

If you haven’t read the novel, then this should satisfy. As it should.

Some may feel that the movie isn’t good because it didn’t stay too faithful to the source material. But then again, we must judge a movie solely on what it is, not on how it should be.

The visual style is great. It’s like a character of its own. The set pieces gave the Heights its own personality. The moors look alive. And when you have two beautiful charming leads bringing the characters to life, it’s easy to overlook the bad aftertaste of Catherine and Heathcliff’s ‘love story.’

Wuthering Heights is now showing in cinemas.