‘Wuthering Heights’ (2026)

By Meghan O’Keefe

No, Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights isn’t a good adaptation of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece, but it is a film that vibrantly captures the madness that you might feel while reading the book as a teenaged girl. Catherine Linton (Margot Robbie) and adopted brother Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have been inseparable since the day they met as children. She toys with him, while he steadfastly shields her from her alcoholic father’s (Martin Clunes) abuse. The tenor of their tight connection naturally changes when they hit puberty. Just as they begin to broach their desires for one another, the wealthy Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) moves into a nearby mansion with his ward, Isabella Linton (Alison Oliver). The beautiful Catherine soon finds herself torn between a marriage of luxury and a lifetime with her soulmate. Fennell leans hard into the story’s passion, staging sex scenes that never happen in the text and playfully evoking paperback romance novel covers with her shots. If you’re a stickler for the source material, you will be disappointed, but if you want to enjoy a version of Wuthering Heights recounted in much the same way as the daffy Isabella explains Romeo & Juliet to Edgar in the film, you might be swept away.

Photo: Everett Collection