Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights Reduces a Complex Novel to Shallow Sexual Spectacle
Source: Eileen Jones. "Just Think of Wuthering Heights as a Barbie Offshoot." February 23, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
The critic argues that Emerald Fennell's new movie version of Wuthering Heights is terrible because it turns a deep, complex novel into a shallow sex romp. Instead of exploring the serious themes about class, race, and forbidden love that make the book powerful, Fennell just focuses on making everything sexy and visually flashy.
Conclusion
Emerald Fennell's film adaptation of Wuthering Heights fails as a serious interpretation of Emily Brontë's novel because it reduces complex themes to juvenile sexual titillation and misses the story's deeper psychological and social commentary
Premises
- Fennell has the sensibility of a 'horny, giggling fourteen-year-old' and explicitly aims to honor her adolescent reading of the novel rather than its mature themes
- The film reduces Heathcliff and Cathy to 'soap opera stick figures' who are spectacularly miscast and lack the depth of Brontë's characters
- Fennell eliminates or mishandles key elements like the supernatural aspects, Heathcliff's racial otherness, and the transgressive nature of the central relationship
- The director transforms everything into 'Saltburn-ish sex games' rather than exploring the characters' psychological torment and social imprisonment
- Fennell focuses on superficial production design and costumes while missing the novel's exploration of how race, class, and religion destroy the protagonists
- The film treats the climactic declaration 'I am Heathcliff' as merely expressing 'big feels' rather than the shocking spiritual transgression it represents in the novel
Assumptions
- Literary adaptations should honor the complexity and depth of their source material
- A director's personal approach to material can be judged as more or less sophisticated
- Sexual content in adaptations should serve the story's themes rather than exist for its own sake
- Previous film adaptations (like Wyler's 1939 version) provide valid comparison points for evaluating new versions
- The supernatural and transgressive elements of Wuthering Heights are essential to its meaning