Those that work on the residence of Emily Brontë herself or are consultants in her life and writing have reacted to the latest adaptation of the traditional novel.
The employees of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, based mostly within the Brontë household’s actual residence in Howarth, attended a screening of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights organized by Warner Bros. on Thursday. Regardless of the film’s controversial modifications from the novel — together with casting Heathcliff as a white man and that includes extra overtly sexual parts — the reception was largely optimistic.
“We weren’t concerned within the making of the movie in any respect,” mentioned museum and Brontë society director Rebecca Yorke (through The Guardian), “however Emerald Fennell was a visitor at our Brontë ladies’s writing competition in September, the place she spoke eloquently about Wuthering Heights and her private response to it. Any new interpretation is more likely to attraction to at least one viewers greater than one other and spark full of life debate.“
“Some could not like [the changes],” mentioned Sue, from the educational wing, “however it’s an thrilling movie to observe in its personal proper,” whereas outreach officer Diane commented: “Is it trustworthy? No. Is it for purists? No. Is it an entertaining riff on the novel? Sure!” The Guardian additionally stories the employees’s hopes that the film will encourage individuals to learn the e-book, which means they are going to be uncovered to the unique materials’s completely different themes.
In an interview with ScreenRant, Fennell mentioned why a number of characters have been minimize from her Wuthering Heights, saying: “Cathy and Heathcliff, I feel these of us who love the e-book, really feel that is the factor.” Congruently, Brontë Museum customer expertise coordinator Ruth mentioned that the film demonstrates “some important truths to the e-book and the connection between Heathcliff and Cathy.“
Mia from digital engagement additionally commented: “It actually does really feel like a fever dream.” Moreover, Brontë’s most up-to-date biographer, Dr Claire O’Callaghan, attended the film’s first public screening in Leeds on Friday and praised it as “actually refreshing” as a result of “There is not any try and have constancy to the unique. If it was extra of a interval drama then individuals may get extra upset. However that is thus far faraway from that, and so excessive.“
“Good performances. There’s lots of enjoyable constructed into it, in addition to the depth and tragedy,” O’Callaghan additionally mentioned. After all, not everybody who has reviewed the film feels the identical manner. Critics are divided on Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s chemistry and performances as Cathy and Heathcliff, respectively, in addition to the themes the difference elects to interact with.
Whereas it has a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, coming from a big variety of optimistic evaluations, ScreenRant‘s Gregory Nussen evaluations Wuthering Heights and provides it solely a 4 out of 10, stating: “Regardless of some moments of wondrous bodily magnificence — or, maybe, due to them — Wuthering Heights is flavorless, skin-deep and oddly staid.“
The house the place Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Brontë wrote their famed novels — and the place Emily died on the age of 30 in 1848, a yr after publishing Wuthering Heights — was purchased by Sir James Roberts in 1928 and donated to the Brontë Society. The optimistic reactions from the employees and Brontë consultants could also be stunning, given how controversial Fennell’s departure from the supply materials has been, however they’re having fun with the movie as a lot as audiences already appear to be.
Wuthering Heights is now in theaters.
- Launch Date
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February 13, 2026
- Runtime
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136 Minutes
- Director
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Emerald Fennell
- Writers
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Emerald Fennell, Emily Brontë
- Producers
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Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara