{"id":459634,"date":"2026-02-10T06:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459634\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:23:07","slug":"what-the-critics-are-saying-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459634\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Critics Are Saying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAhead of the release of Wuthering Heights<\/a> this week, critics\u2019 reviews of the film have finally been released, and they\u2019ve been decidedly mixed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Emerald Fennell<\/a>-directed film, adapted from Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s beloved 1847 novel, follows a passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi<\/a>) and Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie).<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of Monday evening,\u00a0Wuthering Heights had a score of 71 percent from 65 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and clocked in at 60 percent on Metacritic from 31 reviews.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cast also includes Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif, Martin Clunes, Owen Cooper, Charlotte Mellington, Ewan Mitchell and Amy Morgan.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead on for key excerpts from some of the most prominent reviews from critics in Hollywood, ahead of the film\u2019s release in theaters on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter\u2018s\u00a0chief film critic, David Rooney, wrote in his review<\/a>, \u201cFennell\u2019s overhaul flirts with insanity, and if you can let go of preconceived notions about how this story should be told, it\u2019s arguably the writer-director\u2019s most purely entertaining film \u2014 pulpy, provocative, drenched in blazing color and opulent design, laced with anachronistic flourishes, sexy, pervy, irreverent and resonantly tragic. Often teetering on the verge between silly and clever, it\u2019s\u00a0Wuthering Heights\u00a0for the\u00a0Bridgerton\u00a0generation, guaranteed to moisten tear ducts and inflame young hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Independent\u2018s Clarisse Loughrey wrote in part<\/a>, \u201cWith its title stylised in quotation marks, and a director\u2019s statement that it\u2019s intended to capture her experience of reading the book aged 14, it uses the guise of interpretation to gut one of the most impassioned, emotionally violent novels ever written, and then toss its flayed skin over whatever romance tropes seem most marketable. Adaptation or not, it\u2019s an astonishingly hollow work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlison Willmore, with Vulture, wrote in her review<\/a>, \u201cWuthering Heights\u00a0is an incredibly moist movie, and that\u2019s without even taking into account how often the characters get caught in or choose to stride out into the rain (all the better to make their outfits cling). A snail leaves a languid slime trail across a window pane, a housemaid squishes shiny dough provocatively between her fingers while making bread at the kitchen table, a scarred back is shown beaded with sweat in a loving close-up \u2014 Emerald Fennell\u2019s take on the 1847 Emily Bront\u00eb novel practically glistens with fluids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guardian\u2018s critic, Peter Bradshaw, wrote<\/a>, \u201cEmerald Fennell cranks up the campery as she reinvents Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s tale of Cathy and Heathcliff on the windswept Yorkshire moor as a 20-page fashion shoot of relentless silliness, with bodices ripped to shreds and a saucy slap of BDSM.\u00a0Margot Robbie\u2019s Cathy at one stage secretly heads off to the moor for a hilarious bit of self-pleasuring \u2013 although, sadly, there are no audaciously intercut scenes of thirst-trap Heathcliff, played by\u00a0Jacob Elordi, simultaneously doing the same thing in the stable, while muttering gruffly in that Yerrrrrkshire accent of his.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Sims, with The Atlantic, penned in his review<\/a>, \u201cWuthering Heights,\u00a0the writer-director\u00a0Emerald Fennell\u2019s\u00a0new adaptation of Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s groundbreaking Gothic novel, is her best film to date\u2014a heaving, rip-snortingly carnal good time at the cinema. It is also a gooey, grimy mess. The camera lingers on dripping egg yolks and squishy, bubbling dough; the protagonist, Cathy Earnshaw (played by Margot Robbie), must wade through pig\u2019s blood on her way to the moors near her home, leaving a trim of viscera on her gorgeously anachronistic dress. This is Fennell\u2019s aesthetic throughout: loudly stylish on top, and just as loudly nasty right below the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKevin Maher, chief film critic for The U.K. Times, wrote<\/a>, \u201cWho knew Isabella Linton was the best character in\u00a0Wuthering Heights? She is in this vapid Bront\u00eb adaptation, anyway, a film that is enlivened briefly whenever she appears on screen, wickedly played by Alison Oliver. Otherwise, with a chemistry-free central romance between the bizarrely uninteresting Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Cathy (Margot Robbie, also the film\u2019s producer), this film self-deflates. There are conspicuous longueurs and characterizations that barely reflect the complexity of an Instagram reel let alone the greatest gothic novel in English literature. It is the first unfortunate stumble in the film-making ascent of the Oscar-winning writer-director Emerald Fennell (Saltburn and\u00a0Promising Young Woman).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLindsey Bahr wrote<\/a> for the Associated Press, \u201cIn these sex-deprived times at the cinema, if some corset kink, power games and smoldering star power from two genetically blessed Australians is what you\u2019re looking for, Wuthering Heights might just satisfy that big-screen itch. There are myriad pleasures to be had in the bold, absurd pageantry and devilish scheming. Alison Oliver\u2019s comic timing as the naive, skittish Isabella Linton is a particular delight. With the right crowd, it could make for a fun night out at the movies. Yet for all the big swings, Fennell\u2019s Wuthering Heights amounts to something oddly shallow and blunt: garish and stylized fan fiction with the scope and budget of an old-school Hollywood epic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCaryn James, with the BBC, wrote<\/a>, \u201cCathy and Heathcliff are still recognisably Bronte\u2019s lovers, irresistibly drawn to each other from childhood yet fated to be apart. But Fennell\u2019s approach is an extravagant swirl: sexy, dramatic, melodramatic, occasionally comic and often swoonily romantic. There is a lot of standing in the rain and wind, kissing in the rain and wind, and just rain and wind on the Yorkshire moors. She laces the 19th-Century setting with contemporary touches, from its costumes fit for an Oscar red carpet to its sexual frankness. A flesh-coloured wall is based on a scan of Robbie\u2019s skin, veins and all.\u00a0But under it all Fennell channels something essential in the book \u2013 the corrosive behaviour that can result from thwarted desire. Jealousy, anger and vengeance are as natural to Cathy and Heathcliff as their endless passion for each other. If you embrace the film\u2019s audacious style and think of it as a reinvention not an adaptation, this bold, artful Wuthering Heights is utterly absorbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUSA Today\u2018s Brian Truitt wrote in his review<\/a>, \u201cFennell\u2019s adaptation takes some liberties with Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s original 1847 Victorian-era novel but unless you\u2019re a devout superfan, you likely won\u2019t be too mad. The Oscar-winning British filmmaker crafts a sumptuous bad romance that\u2019s quite haughty, darkly hilarious and ultimately heartfelt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeth Webb, for Empire, penned in her review<\/a>, \u201cThere is notably more plot to Bront\u00eb\u2019s novel than in Fennell\u2019s reimagining, and while the film\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0need a denser narrative, it could\u00a0benefit\u00a0from feeling more grounded \u2014 especially when Cathy and Heathcliff fight and fornicate like teenagers, ricocheting between lust and loathing. \u2018I hated\u00a0you,\u00a0I loved you, too\u2019 is\u00a0all well and good, but here the stakes become more subdued as style takes over. The film is undeniably expertly crafted, and Fennell \u2014 who has quickly risen to become one of Britain\u2019s buzziest Hollywood exports \u2014 has certainly stepped up as a filmmaker in terms of scope. But had\u00a0Wuthering Heights\u00a0stayed closer to earth, the weight of this tragic romance would hit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew York Post\u2018s Johnny Oleksinski wrote in part<\/a>, \u201cTraditionalists will moan that Fennell has turned Bront\u00eb\u2019s book into a sweeping romance. And, yes,\u00a0she has. Music swells, tears flow, faces are perfect. But what makes the movie so enthralling is\u00a0that\u00a0she hits on a powerful tug-of-war: We root hard for Heathcliff and Cathy, even though we know full well we shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the release of Wuthering Heights this week, critics\u2019 reviews of the film have finally been released,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[83603,88,34564,214562,82685],"class_list":{"0":"post-459634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-emerald-fennell","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jacob-elordi","11":"tag-margo-robbie","12":"tag-wuthering-heights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}