"Wuthering Heights"

Wuthering Heights (2026) is adapted from Emily Brontë's 1847 novel and became the most argued about film of the year. The novel is already an uncomfortable book. Heathcliff is a foundling brought into the Earnshaw household, and a bond forms between him and Catherine. What follows is revenge, cruelty across generations, and a story in which nobody is good. The most common mistake made with the book is romanticising it; Brontë did not write a love story. Emerald Fennell went the other way and foregrounded the violence rather than the romance. It is visually excessive, sexually explicit, and makes no attempt at period fidelity. Two separate arguments followed. The first was casting: Brontë describes Heathcliff as dark skinned, and Jacob Elordi's casting was objected to on that basis. The second was the adaptation itself, with literary critics saying the novel's themes had been misread. Critics and audiences split. Critical opinion is divided while the audience score sits noticeably higher. It went far past its eighty million dollar budget commercially, passing two hundred and forty million. Margot Robbie plays Catherine. It runs 136 minutes. Good for: bold adaptation, Fennell's register, and period films with no interest in period. Less good for: the sex and violence are explicit, anyone seeking fidelity to the novel will be annoyed, and there are scenes involving harm to animals.