{"id":2283931,"date":"2026-02-16T11:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2283931"},"modified":"2026-02-16T11:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:23:48","slug":"im-a-bronte-expert-and-wuthering-heights-film-is-a-daddy-issues-sex-romp-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/im-a-bronte-expert-and-wuthering-heights-film-is-a-daddy-issues-sex-romp-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m a Bronte expert and Wuthering Heights film is a daddy issues sex romp failure’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the dust settles on the debut of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and the months of discourse begin – Penguin Random House editor and Bronte enthusiast Joelle Owusu-Sekyere weighs in<\/h2>\n
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\"Controversially,<\/div>\n

Controversially, swathes of the book are cut from the film(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Emerald Fennell\u2019s ultra modern bodice ripper take on Wuthering Heights<\/a> is leaving audiences taking Victorian gasps of shock and women swooning en masse at Jacob Elordi\u2019s brooding two metre high presence.<\/p>\n

However, the critics are unimpressed. With all the spectacle of Saltburn, Margot Robbie\u2019s depiction of Cathy Earnshaw<\/a> has been unconvincing for Emily Bronte purists. One of these people is Bronte enthusiast Joelle Owusu-Sekyere, Editorial Director at Penguin Random House.<\/p>\n

Her post-mortem is simple. She told the Mirror<\/a>: \u201cFor those with short attention spans who prefer aesthetics and moody romance over moral complexity? Four stars. For people who\u2019ve read the book? Deep frustration. Two stars.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s an Emerald Fennell film, so you expect shock value, provocation and months of online discourse. After Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, you\u2019d be na\u00efve not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith her take on Wuthering Heights, Fennell delivers exactly that – a highly stylised, divisive, aesthetically intoxicating spectacle. What she doesn\u2019t deliver is an adaptation of Wuthering Heights. And that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Owusu-Sekyere<\/div>\n

Owusu-Sekyere was unimpressed(Image: Provided)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn purely visual terms, it\u2019s a beautiful piece of art. But period drama adaptations are meant to be at least cohesive. This film is messy \u2013 an unsubtle collage of cherrypicked erotic scenes rather than a fully realised world<\/a> with real politics, history and morals. Style repeatedly trumps substance and this is gothic by way of TikTok and Pinterest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frankly cringe watching Robbie and Elordi deliver teenage dialogue that felt painfully modern in the mouths of 18th-century characters. Robbie, in particular, could have benefited from longer sessions with a dialect coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fennell has been transparent about her meandering away from the script – notably putting the title itself in quotation marks to show her divergence from the source material. This is a \u201ccop out\u201d in Owusu-Sekyere\u2019s view. She said: \u201cFennell should have committed to either properly adapting from the original source material or reimagining the story with a new title.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Fennell's<\/div>\n

Fennell’s shots verge on kitsch (Image: AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

However, one thing seems to be agreed upon. Elordi\u2019s brilliance as a leading hunk. Owusu-Sekyere said the Kissing Booth star \u201cshines as a leading man, sporting a surprisingly decent Yorkshire accent and carrying the film\u2019s brooding physicality well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong the supporting cast, there are stirring turns – Martin Clunes brings gravitas, Alison Oliver impresses as the eccentric Isabella, and Hong Chau as Nelly gives one of the most grounded performances in the film. I was pleased to see Nelly given prominencen – as narrator in the original novel by Emily Bront\u00eb, she deserves it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut strong performances cannot mask the film\u2019s most frustrating choice – its relentless cherry-picking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the greatest love story of all time, as the trailer arrogantly suggests. It is a story of obsession, revenge, class, race, social exclusion and toxic emotional dependency.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeathcliff is not simply a wronged romantic hero – he is denied education, brutalised by racism and classism, and shaped by systemic cruelty. Remove that context and you flatten him into a two-dimensional, horny brute with daddy issues.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n

The high fashion costumes have only the shimmer of the Victorian era and everything of a 21st century catwalk(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhitewashing (when the author clearly states in the opening chapter that he is \u2018dark skinned\u2019). Heathcliff once again strips away crucial understanding of why he is treated so abysmally.<\/p>\n

Fennell has defended her decision of casting Elordi as Heathcliff saying she cast what she conjured up in her coming of age childlike imagination when she first read the book at 14, as he was the spitting image of the man on the front of her copy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe racial undertones – uncomfortable, shambolic, vital – are erased. So too are complex themes of class and literacy. In the novel, his education is deliberately cut short by Cathy\u2019s older brother, fuelling both his exclusion and his rage.<\/p>\n

Owusu-Sekyere said: \u201c Here, that motivation is largely absent mainly because the character of Hindley Earnshaw is completely erased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result? A sanitised, commercial, TikTok-friendly romance \u00e1 la the disastrous film adaptation of Coleen Hoover\u2019s It Ends with Us.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the film is emotional. In the final five minutes, as the montage swelled and the score soared, I saw women around me wiping away tears. It\u2019s easy to win over an audience with perfectly spliced childhood-to-adulthood flashbacks and a rousing orchestral score.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"jacob<\/div>\n

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star in the film(Image: PR)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBut I couldn\u2019t help wondering how many were waiting for the gothic haunting that never arrived. The biggest omission – and the one that left me genuinely baffled – is the ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the entire second half of the book is cut out – in its place we get a sprawling sequence of stolen sex scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s less Wuthering Heights and more Cathy + Heathcliff: Part I, which is more appropriate if you\u2019re only telling half the story. After all, 10 Things I Hate About You isn\u2019t called The Taming of the Shrew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has read the novel knows its most haunting element – the ghost of Cathy returning to the window, pleading to be let in. The supernatural is not an aesthetic flourish; it is the emotional and thematic spine of the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Cathy dies in this film – covered in leeches and without children, no less – it becomes clear the entire second generation, the cyclical revenge, the redemption arc, the haunting legacy\u2026 all gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI glanced at my watch, wondering how on earth they\u2019d fit in the rest. They don\u2019t. It\u2019s erased. For a story embedded in western cultural consciousness for nearly 200 years, that\u2019s a brazen decision.<\/p>\n

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\"margot<\/div>\n

The film is very different to the book(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cUpdating a classic for a new generation is one thing. Stripping away its darkness, gore, psychological torment and social commentary – leaving only yearning and erotic charge – is another.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning Isabella, a victim of domestic abuse in the novel, into a quirky BDSM sub is certainly\u2026 a choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a purist. I love when filmmakers turn text into immersive 3D worlds but here, the elevation feels superficial and deliberately hollow. The infuriatingly unlikeable characters and obsessive brutality that makes Wuthering Heights endure has been replaced with \u2018#vibes\u2019.<\/p>\n

The aesthetic choices of this film, are singular and transportative – but have also come under fire.<\/p>\n

Owusu-Sekyere\u2019 said: \u201cBleak Yorkshire moors, fabric textures you can almost feel through the screen, candlelit interiors that look torn from a high fashion magazine.\u201d<\/p>\n

One absurd feature was a room with walls a blown up study of Robbie\u2019s skin. Other moments such as obviously out of place cling film curtains seemed a call to Sofia Coppola\u2019s Marie Antoinette where lilac Converse are spotted among low slung period-accurate heels.<\/p>\n

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\"Jacob<\/div>\n

Fans love the film – critics less so(Image: Warner Bros)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Owusu-Sekyere added: \u201cThe production designs and cinematography are stunning and the costumes and suggestive food imagery are striking, if occasionally peculiar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe score swells at exactly the right beats and the script does well to highlight some of the best lines from the novel. All these aspects will no doubt be recognised at next year\u2019s awards season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe score \u2013 including a soundtrack from Charli XCX – feels at times misplaced, though occasionally enchanting in the way \u2018Young and Beautiful\u2019 elevated Baz Luhrmann\u2019s The Great Gatsby. It works emotionally, but not narratively.”<\/p>\n

The problem of the original source material is central to the nay-sayers. With Robbie boldy admitting she hadn’t read the book as a choice to help her embrace Fennell’s version more sincerely.<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Jacob<\/div>\n

Jacob Elordi’s performance has been praised(Image: PR)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Owusu-Sekyere said: \u201c2026 marks a National Year of Reading and this film will no doubt bring more readers to Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s novel. However, the greatest irony of all is that Fennell has either not reread the book in recent years or misinterpreted its themes and meanings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matters, especially when paperback tie-in editions featuring a swoon worthy Gone with the Wind-esque film poster on the cover hit shelves suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film has every right to exist, and modern audiences have every right to be entertained by a filmmaker\u2019s interpretation of a classic novel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut marketing this as an adaptation rather than an inspiration feels misleading. This is Emerald Fennell\u2019s version – perhaps how she first read it. A woman of privilege reshaping a text that is fundamentally about exclusion and deprivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn trying to carve out a contemporary romantic lens, she has paradoxically produced something asinine and uncomfortable. Reactionary filmmaking, sexual shock factor and colourful costumes are ultimately \u2013 a distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Aretha Franklin once quipped – \u201cgreat gowns, beautiful gowns. I left the cinema asking a simple question: what was the point – and who, exactly, was it for?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mirror.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the dust settles on the debut of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and the months of discourse begin – Penguin Random House editor and Bronte enthusiast Joelle Owusu-Sekyere weighs in Controversially, swathes of the book are cut from the film(Image: AP) Emerald Fennell\u2019s ultra modern bodice ripper take on Wuthering Heights is leaving audiences taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2283932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[346263,340958,310836,389596],"class_list":["post-2283931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-baz-luhrmann","tag-emily-bronte","tag-margot-robbie","tag-martin-clunes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\u2018Im-a-Bronte-expert-and-Wuthering-Heights-film-is-a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283933,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283931\/revisions\/2283933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}