The 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights doesn’t ask you to be a Brontë expert — it just wants you to feel everything, all at once. This is a film drenched in mood, mist, moist tension, and modernised melodrama — and it definitely makes for a memorable date night. Just be careful who you bring.
Directed with flair and a clear love for heightened emotion, the film leans all the way into the romance, the toxicity, and the absurdity of Heathcliff and Cathy’s all-consuming relationship. It’s certainly striking to look at, though not in the sweeping, romantic way you might expect. Instead of candlelit corridors and lingering gazes across misty moors, the camera lingers on tactile, ‘liquid themed’ details — kneading bread dough, even the slow crawl of a slug. The effect is sensual and deliberately provoking. The costumes don’t lean neatly into traditional period drama either; this isn’t a polished heritage piece. In fact, it bears very little resemblance to the structure or tone of Brontë’s novel. Rather than retelling the story faithfully, it feels more like a bold reinterpretation that uses the characters as inspiration rather than blueprint. Traditionalists may struggle with the departures, but viewers open to something more abstract may appreciate the atmosphere it creates.
Jacob Elordi plays Heathcliff as withdrawn and simmering, often communicating more through silence and physical presence than dialogue. Margot Robbie’s Cathy feels impulsive and emotionally untethered, shifting quickly between sweetness and manic intensity. Their dynamic isn’t built on dramatic showdowns so much as sustained tension, and at times the heightened emotion borders on uncomfortable. There are noticeable plot gaps that can make character choices and motivations difficult to grasp without prior knowledge of the novel, even though the film’s storyline itself differs significantly from the book. It doesn’t always land smoothly, but it certainly isn’t timid.
This is very much a film about feeling things. Grief, longing, desire, vengeance — it’s all here, and it’s turned up loud. That makes it a bold choice for a Valentine’s Day flick, but in a way, it works. If your idea of romance leans more feral than fairytale, and you enjoy watching beautiful people make terrible emotional decisions, this one’s for you.
