Shot on location in Yorkshire, this adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel about the obsessive love of an orphaned boy for the daughter of his protector is the most complete version on film. It also demonstrates why most adaptations end with the death of Catherine, as there is too much plot
to be crammed into a feature film.
Late in the 18th century, Wuthering Heights, home of the Earnshaw family, is near to the Grange, home of the Lintons. Heathcliff (Ralph Fiennes) is an orphan raised with the Earnshaw children, forced to become a stableboy when Mr. Earnshaw dies and son Hindley (Jeremy Northam) takes over the
estate. Hindley's hatred of Heathcliff cannot affect the love between him and Cathy Earnshaw (Juliette Binoche); the two live as if in a world of their own. But Cathy comes under the influence of the Lintons; a misunderstanding drives Heathcliff away and Cathy marries Edgar Linton (Simon
Shepherd).
Several years later Heathcliff returns, having made his fortune. He buys Wuthering Heights, which the dissolute Hindley had mortgaged to pay gambling debts. Although Cathy loves Heathcliff she rejects him. Heathcliff spitefully marries Edgar's sister Isabella (Sophie Ward), who loves him and is
shattered to find he doesn't care about her. Distraught over Heathcliff and Edgar's hatred of each other, Cathy dies in childbirth.
Eighteen years later, Cathy's daughter Catherine (also Juliette Binoche) has a chance meeting with Heathcliff, despite Edgar's warnings that she stay away from Wuthering Heights. She also meets her two cousins: Heathcliff's son Linton (Jonathan Firth), and Hareton Earnshaw (Jason Riddington),
Hindley's son who has been raised by Heathcliff in the lowly circumstances to which Hindley reduced him. Knowing that Edgar is dying, Heathcliff forces Catherine to marry his son so that he will come to control the Linton estate, completing his revenge on his enemies. But revenge fails to ease his
obsession with Cathy, and after a meeting with her ghost he dies.
"Take care not to smile at any part of" this story, says an uncredited Sinead O'Connor, in an introductory appearance as the author of EMILY BRONTE'S WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Not likely. Previous adaptations may have truncated the novel, but at least they were able in varying measures to do some justice
to it with the sections they used. In struggling to compress all of Bronte's story into one film of average length, the filmmakers have left it no breathing room. At best, it may work as a review for those who have read the novel, but less literate viewers will be too confused to make much sense
of the story, much less the underlying emotions. This might have been splendid had it been at least an hour longer (surely not too much to ask for such a beloved novel); as it stands, the film has its virtues, including picturesque Yorkshire settings and star Ralph Fiennes, who proves alternately
pitiable and hateful as Heathcliff. But while Juliette Binoche is adequate as Cathy, it's too much of a strain on her faltering English accent to have cast her as daughter Catherine as well (looking silly in a strawberry blonde wig). Made for theatrical release, this did poorly in England and was
not released in the United States until it was shown on the TNT cable network, followed by a home video release in 1997. (Violence, adult situations.) leave a comment
