More than a decade ago, The New Yorker published a piece titled “Can Wuthering Heights Work Onscreen?,” in which my now-colleague Joshua Rothman argued that Emily Brontë’s classic is beloved “not just for its romance but also for its strangeness, its intensity, and its violence.” These qualities, he noted, are often left out of the many films and miniseries the book has inspired, which tend to reduce the story to the doomed romance of Catherine and Heathcliff.

The extravagant new movie “Wuthering Heights,” written and directed by the English filmmaker Emerald Fennell, is very much in this vein; it could be the most reductive version of this material ever made. But I can’t say I was ever bored. As she demonstrated in her wild satirical thriller Saltburn, from 2023, Fennell cares little for subtlety, and here she’s made an ode to mad, passionate excess.

You could say she tells the story in broad brushstrokes, but I don’t think she’s even using a brush — more like bright red spray paint. And she’s cast two stars, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, as a Catherine and Heathcliff you won’t soon forget, even if their love affair is ultimately more photogenic than it is deeply moving.

It begins in the late 18th century, around the time that the young Catherine Earnshaw, who likes to run wild on the Yorkshire moors, gets a new companion named Heathcliff, a scruffy urchin who comes to live with her and her father at their house, Wuthering Heights.

Years later, and now played by Robbie and Elordi, Catherine and Heathcliff are extremely close, to the point of sharing a tense, quasi-incestuous attraction. It’s clear they love each other, even when Catherine expresses her interest in Edgar Linton, a wealthy aristocrat who’s moved into a magnificent estate nearby.

Catherine ends up marrying Edgar, played here by Shazad Latif. Heathcliff storms off in a fury, only to return several years later, with a fortune of his own and a fierce desire to either reclaim Catherine or have his revenge. He inflames her jealousy by setting his sights on Edgar’s impressionable young ward, Isabella — that’s Alison Oliver, giving the movie’s sharpest performance.

Up to a point, this is how past adaptations — including the classic versions directed by William Wyler and Luis Buñuel — have unfolded. But Fennell wants to make the story her own, by infusing it with a hot-and-heavy sexuality that you don’t typically see in a Brontë adaptation. Catherine and Heathcliff do a lot more romping in the rain than usual, in scenes that Fennell stages for wicked laughs as well as earnest emotion.

But it’s precisely in the realm of emotion that this “Wuthering Heights” falters. Elordi and Robbie are fine actors, and they do what they can to give this overheated movie a core of real feeling. But they are often overwhelmed by the sheer gargantuan excess of the filmmaking. The movie may be set in the 18th century, but Fennell draws on a wealth of contemporary inspirations, starting with the soundtrack, which features several moody songs by the pop star Charli xcx. The production design and the costumes are full of outré touches, from the bright red acrylic floor in one room of Catherine and Edgar’s home to the Met Gala-ready gowns that Catherine wears in scene after scene. She changes outfits so often that Robbie at times seems to be playing Barbie all over again.

There’s a reason for all this anachronism; it’s Fennell’s way of saying that Catherine and Heathcliff’s love story is so powerful that it transcends its period setting. But for all her bold choices, there are aspects of this “Wuthering Heights” that remain hidebound and conventional, including its treatment of race.

Over the years, there’s been much debate over the subject of Heathcliff’s ethnicity. Brontë’s book famously describes him as a “dark-skinned gypsy,” and he’s often been held up as one of the few protagonists of color in Victorian literature — not that that’s kept him from being played by one white actor after another, including Laurence Olivier, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hardy and now Elordi.

One under-appreciated exception is Andrea Arnold’s 2012 version, which features two Black actors, Solomon Glave and James Howson, as the younger and older Heathcliff. Casting choices aside, Arnold’s version is pretty much the antithesis of Fennell’s: somber, downbeat and grimly realistic. It’s a tougher but ultimately more affecting movie. And with “Wuthering Heights” fever having set in, now is as good a time as any to seek it out.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss
Politicians Are Chronically Online
Go Outside, Touch Grass!!!

Published
February 13, 2026
1:00 AM PST

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MILAN — U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim’s quest for a historic Olympic halfpipe three-peat was foiled by none other than her teenage protégé.

Kim took home silver, after 17-year-old Gaon Choi of South Korea rebounded from a dramatic crash to overtake her in the final run.

“It’s the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I’m incredibly happy it happened today,” Choi said afterward.

Kim, 25, was within arm’s reach of becoming the first halfpipe snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic golds. Despite a last-minute shoulder injury, she cruised easily through Wednesday’s qualifiers, which were actually her first competition of the season.

And she was looking like a lock through much of Thursday’s final — under a light nighttime snowfall in Livigno — which hinged on the best of three runs.

Kim’s strong first showing gave her 88 points and an early lead, which she held for the majority of the competition as many other contenders — including her U.S. teammates Bea Kim and Maddy Mastro — fell on one or more of their runs.

A big crash nearly ended Choi’s night early, but after a medical exam she returned to the halfpipe slope for two more runs.

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Choi also took a heavy fall on her opening run, needing a concussion check. She almost missed her second turn, only to fall again. But an impressive third run propelled her to the top of the leaderboard, with 90.25 points.

“It wasn’t so much about having huge resolve,” she said later. “I just kept thinking about the technique I was originally doing.”

Then all eyes were on Kim, the last rider of the night, with a chance to retake the lead. But she fell on her cab double cork 1080, a trick she had landed cleanly in previous runs, which stuck her with her original score. Choi and her team broke down in happy sobs and cheers immediately.

As Choi wiped her eyes, a beaming Kim greeted her at the photo finish with a warm hug. As they lined up alongside bronze medalist Mitsuki Ono of Japan, Kim stood to Choi’s side and pointed at her excitedly.

“I’ve known [Choi] since she was little, and it means a lot to see that I’ve inspired the next generation and they’re now out here killing it,” Kim said afterward.

Choi is the same age Kim was in 2018 when she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboard medal.

The two have known each other for nearly a decade, a bond that began when Choi’s father struck up a friendship with Kim’s dad — who emigrated from South Korea to the U.S. — in the lead-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Kim (R) gave Choi (L) a warm reception after the last run of the night.

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“Chloe’s dad did a lot of mentoring to my dad,” Choi said after winning the first World Cup she entered in 2023, at age 14. “I didn’t know much because I was young, but Chloe’s dad gave my dad a lot of advice. It made me who I am today.”

Kim and her dad helped bring Choi to the U.S. to train with at California’s Mammoth Mountain, and maintained a supportive relationship. Kim spoke highly of Choi at an earlier press conference, calling it a “full-circle moment” and saying she sees “a mirror reflection of myself and my family.”

“We’re seeing a big shift to Asians being dominant in snow sports,” she added. “I’ve had aunts telling me that I shouldn’t snowboard, get a real career, focus on school. It’s cool to see that shift happening.”

Choi’s victory makes her the first female Korean athlete to win a medal in snow sports. This is also South Korea’s first snowboard gold.

“I want to introduce this sport more to my country through my performance at this Olympics,” Choi told Olympics.com before the Games. “I also believe that enjoying the Games is just as important as achieving good results.”