Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, released in theaters on February 13th, 2026, but even before then, the movie has been the subject of criticism and controversy. Since the trailer released on November 3rd, 2026, people have been bashing the movie because all the characters (except the white ones) have been whitewashed, and the book is being treated as a romance. Now that the movie is out, people are even more disappointed because the movie is boring, and important characters were left out.
The movie is only an adaptation of the first half of the movie, so parts of the book that are important to the second half are changed or left out. Most of the time it’s fine, but the decision to get rid of Hidley (Cathrine’s older brother) makes no sense. Hidely is cruel to Healthcliff, which in turn makes Healthcliff cruel. The reason Hidely is rude to Healthcliff is because Mr. Earnshawn, (Hidely’s father and the person who adopted Healthcliff), likes Healthcliff more than his son. After Mr. Earnshawn’s death, Hidely becomes the head of Wuthering Heights and starts treating Heathcliff as a laborer, and less-than-human. In the movie, the role of Hidely is put on Mr. Earnshawn, which makes no sense, because why would Mr. Earnshawn adopt a child just to hate him?
In Emily Brontë’s novel, Healthcliff is described as dark-skinned, and many characters refer to him with a racial slur. Healthcliff’s race is very important to his character, and adds to Brontë’s message on the injustice of the class system. The decision to make Heathcliff a white man makes much of the movie not make sense – for instance, Cathy doesn’t want to marry Heathcliff because it will degrade her. It would only degrade her if Healthcliff was of a lower social class than Cathy, but the movie shows them as the same social class. The casting of Edgar Linton has the opposite problem – he is played by a person of color when he should be a white man. In the book, Edgar Linton contrasts Healthcliff by having better manners and style. Cathy only marries him because she believes she can use his money to help herself and Healthcliff, and this decision becomes her undoing.
The movie describes itself as “inspired by the greatest love story of all time” which is the opposite of what the movie is. The book is a tragic story about abuse and systematic racism/class. Love turns into an obsession that destroys not just Healthcliff and Cathy’s lives, but the lives of the people around them. Cathy and Healthcliff are both horrible people, and their love is their only redeeming factor, but much of the story is not about their love, but rather what happens because of it. The second half focuses on breaking the cycle of cruelty by showing healthier love between Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshawn. Since the movie ignores volume two of the book, it misses the message and themes of the book.
If you ignore how the movie is an unfaithful adaptation, it still sucks because it’s boring. Healthcliff is reduced to being someone to shield Cathy from rain and stick fingers in her mouth, when he is a complicated character who is both a victim and villain. Isabella is reduced to being complicit in her own abuse when she actually shows strength by escaping from Heathcliff. Edgar Linton is simply an obstacle between Cathy and Heathcliff. The only redeeming factor from the movie is the music.
Overall, do not recommend.
