Cover From left: Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
From left: Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation is far removed from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, yet it remains, at its heart, a love story
As a love story alone, it is beautifully crafted and deeply affecting—a romance that slowly and cruelly pierces the heart. But as a reinterpretation of Brontë’s 1847 novel, it invites comparison, and Emerald Fennell’s film is decidedly not Wuthering Heights.
The period drama strips away the Gothic shadow and sense of decay that haunts the original novel. Gone is the desolate Yorkshire bleakness, replaced by a stylised aesthetic that celebrates the grandeur of the Dales. The howling winds, flickering candles and ghostlike white curtains remain, but they serve not to terrify, rather to dazzle.
If the set is breathtaking, the costumes are even more so. Designed by two-time Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran—whose credits include Barbie (2023), Kristen Stewart’s Chanel finery in Spencer (2021), the March sisters’ gowns in Little Women (2019) and Keira Knightley’s unforgettable dresses in Anna Karenina (2012), Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007)—every look Catherine Earnshaw (played by Margot Robbie) wears is runway-worthy. From an off-the-shoulder wedding gown with embroidered, billowing sleeves to a sombre dark-blue funeral dress veiled in gossamer, the wardrobe might not be historically precise, but it is lavish, romantic and exquisite.
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Above The trailer of ‘Wuthering Heights’
Fennell ties the film’s mise-en-scène to the Victorian era’s fascination with hair, though filtered through a modern lens. The title appears on screen as digitally animated strands forming letters, while an early scene sees Isabella Linton, Catherine’s sister-in-law, presenting Catherine with a doll made from Catherine’s hair—an unsettling gesture met by Catherine’s disgusted grimace, which seems more like a contemporary interpretation of this Victorian practice. The result is less sentimental memento and more commentary on obsession, image and fetish.
Casting, unsurprisingly, has sparked debate. Heathcliff is played by Australian actor Jacob Elordi, who is of Basque descent. In Brontë’s novel, the character is described as a “dark-skinned gypsy” with “black eyes”—language reflective of 19th-century discourse. Some have speculated Heathcliff may have been Romani, South Asian (“lascar”), African or of mixed heritage. While Elordi’s tall frame and brooding sensuality fit Fennell’s vision—and trust us, you will swoon—the casting unintentionally softens the class and racial tensions that defined Brontë’s social critique. Nonetheless, Elordi captures the destructive yearning and mania that make Heathcliff unforgettable.
How Heathcliff transforms himself from an impoverished outsider into the wealthy master of Wuthering Heights goes unexplained. We see only jealousy-fuelled rage without the narrative bridge of ambition or cunning, leaving a curious gap in the story’s emotional logic.
Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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Vietnamese American actor Hong Chau brings spirited wit to the role of Nelly Dean, Catherine’s loyal but envious nursemaid. Fennell reimagines Nelly as a woman driven by fear of losing her closest friend to Heathcliff—a jealousy that ultimately helps seal the lovers’ tragic fate. Meanwhile, Shazad Latif, of Pakistani, Scottish and English heritage, plays Edgar Linton with tenderness and restraint. His portrayal evokes sympathy, yet the film’s framing unfortunately positions him mostly as an obstacle to Catherine and Heathcliff’s turbulent attachment, rather than a victim of their destructive passion.
Taken as a whole, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights reads as a modern reimagining of a Victorian classic. Though purists may question her departures from the source text, the film remains true to the central theme of love as an all-consuming force: one that blurs the boundaries between devotion, madness and self-destruction. Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond is not romantic in the conventional sense; it is fevered, perilous and transcendent. Their yearning defies class, social expectations and reason itself, consuming everything and everyone in its path.
Perhaps that is why, nearly two centuries after Brontë’s novel shocked polite society, audiences still find themselves howling for this tale of love and ruin—and why Fennell’s timely adaptation, released just ahead of Valentine’s Day, continues to stir hearts as fiercely as it breaks them.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
