The costumes. The sets. The cinematography. Almost everything about the new movie adaptation of the 1847 novel “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë was as close to perfect as it could have possibly been. With Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and Margot Robbie as Catherine, the duo set the scene for one of the most devastating takes on the nineteenth century novel yet.
One of the most modern things of this movie was the music, all especially written for the movie by artist Charli xcx. Besides the details of current music, everything else was kept up to date with mid 1800’s – more specifically, the costumes. The costume designer was Jacqueline Durran, who also worked on the filmography of the live action “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Barbie”. The stars of the show, in terms of the costumes, were the ones worn by Margot Robbie and Alison Oliver, who plays Isabella Linton. The Linton family that Catherine marries into is a family of wealth, meaning that at the set time period they all would’ve been surrounded by big, glamourous dresses and extravagant jewels.
The film is also not to the complete accuracy of the original novel. This movie features an adaptation of the book based on an interpretation from director Emerald Fennell. It ends about half through the book, and takes the main plots and puts a twist on them for the purposes of entertainment. One main twist is that Catherine dies from sepsis in the movie after a miscarriage gone wrong. This is just barely different from the way that she dies from childbirth in the novel. The acting that came from these scenes were so well done that it took an emotional toll on some viewers. Multiple users on TikTok shared that they had walked out with tears running down their faces.
The acting shown from the main stars is one of the best things about this movie that helps truly bring the novel to life. Both Elordi and Robbie have an upbringing from Queensland, Australia, meaning for the purposes of the movie, their accents were not hard to correct to a classic British accent. Both stars also perfectly encapsulate the yearning that takes place between Heathcliff and Catherine. The constant need for the two of them to be around each other, and the need only growing stronger after Catherine’s husband, Edgar Linton, forbids the relationship between the two. To the viewer, it seemed as if all the emotions from the pair were so raw that the devastation felt from the ending seemed all the more real.
Overall, the movie is full of some of the best acting, set designs, costumes, and emotions that can be brought to the screen. If viewers want to see more of the cast from this movie, they can find Jacob Elordi in his upcoming projects Frankenstein, The Dog Stars, and Outer Dark. Margot Robbie can be found in previous projects of Barbie, and Suicide Squad.
