Wuthering Heights Review: A Thick Fog Of Hot, Filthy Melodrama Smogs Up Margot Robbie’s Latest Film

Oh, 2026’s Wuthering Heights. I don’t love you, I don’t hate you; I just wish I felt more passion for you – especially as a movie so strongly reliant on emulating that singular, wondrous emotion and, with two of Hollywood’s hottest film stars right now, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, no less.

As someone who hasn’t read Emily Brontë’s classic novel, I cannot weigh in on whether it’s a faithful adaptation. From my own fresh eyes, I can say I’m fastened tightly in the middle over Emerald Fennell’s third feature film directing effort.

This Wuthering Heights movie sure is an overtly horny one that seeks to make runny eggs on bed sheets, skin-ridden walls and horse stables seductive over the eerie setting of the English Moors. Oftentimes it feels like the foggy image of if Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland and Bridgerton were star-crossed lovers. It’s hot, it’s heavy, but it has a style over substance issue that stops it from becoming the complete grandiose Hollywood moment it certainly desires to be.

It’s less of a romance, but rather a portrait of stubborn codependency.

Wuthering Heights gets a more innocent start (sans an attempt to make a hanging sexy in its opening scene) when a young Catherine Earnshaw first meets the man that will wrap around her heart. Her father (Martin Clunes) takes in a boy from the streets to be her “pet” when she's a child. Cathy calls him Heathcliff herself and they become inseparable. As the years pass and they grow into adults, a sensual, palatable yearning forms between them in their home on the isolated countryside.

But Catherine doesn’t allow herself to melt into his arms as her father’s gambling addiction leaves the Earnshaw household in shambles. Instead, she makes it her mission to earn the affections of their new and very wealthy neighbor Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) as Cathy and Heathcliff exchange longing glances at the other as roommates. Cathy's trade of romance for monetary stability is only temperamental, as she soon changes her mind. However, a brooding Heathcliff has already disappeared from Wuthering Heights in anguish before she can confess her love, thus starting the movie’s tall glass of lusty antics. Ah yes, another classic romance torn apart by miscommunication!

The movie’s storyline has all the ingredients you’d think to sweep one off their feet, but somehow I was left swollen at the ankles: from electrifying line deliveries, to gorgeous costumes, a will-they, won’t-they question and simmering love triangle to take sides on. But at its core, Wuthering Heights isn’t really about love or romance, it’s about obsession. It’s about two people who’ve used the other as a crutch and object of happiness despite their misery that they don’t know how to function outside of one another. A worthy topic for sure to tackle, but don’t mistake the movie’s Valentine’s Day weekend release for a cute date flick, because it’s much more tortured and toxic than that.

The tone wanders as sometimes it feels like a dark comedy and other times a gothic horror flick.

Fennell must want her Wuthering Heights to be surprising and shocking, given the content. On top of the gothic eroticism the world of the film is pungent with, there’s an unexpected humor and non-romantic intensity about it. Some scenes seem to play like a dark comedy out of a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, while others make you feel like the romance flick has been washed in a horror-themed filter that doesn’t quite go with everything else. Catherine and Heathcliff seem to suffer the mood swings of teenagers, going from sweet and sullen to biting and violent throughout the film without a lot of indication as to why... except the effect they apparently have on each other.

It's too bad their character development is so weak, because I know these actors could have more to give if the script had let them be more human. Robbie and Elordi showcase their talents with two great performances that only suffer from the lack of depth their characters are given. Hong Chau’s role of the housekeeper Nelly very much gives a highlight performance as the most grounded character in the film who seeks to mature Cathy against all odds. Alison Oliver (who was also in Saltburn with Fennell and Elordi) steals many of her scenes as the creepy yet hilarious younger sister to Edgar.

Emerald Fennell’s eye for visual imagery is Wuthering Heights’ indisputable highlight.

I think I’m most caught between my lack of excitement over the delivery of the story with the complete and obvious richness of Wuthering Heights’ production, which definitely gives audience a gorgeous feast for the eyes. It feels as if you muted the whole movie you’d still be able to find yourself enchanted for the entire runtime on imagery alone. Of course you wouldn’t want to because the soundtrack by Charli XCX is a big plus too, helping tie together the movie’s old-timey feel with its modern appeal throughout.

Despite the more puzzling matters of Wuthering Heights, it’s clear as day to me how incredible of a visual storyteller Emerald Fennell is and the movie dazzles the most through the composition of every image. There’s a lot of really memorable scenes, particularly in how Robbie and Elordi are composed next to one another. Also, you have to give major props to cinematographer Linus Sandgren, who’s also done La La Land, Babylon and the upcoming Dune: Part Three. The production designer and costume designer are also absolutely firing on all cylinders here.

You simply cannot help but be captivated by distinct choices like Heathcliff looking like the cover of a pulp romance novel or Cathy eating an exaggeratedly gigantic strawberry. If only the quality of the aesthetics were as rich as the script. I found myself more excited by the eye candy that is Wuthering Heights than the tragic romance itself, and feeling unremarkable over a movie that hungers to be a generational epic.