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Wuthering Heights

2003, Movie, PG-13, 88 mins

Wuthering Heights: Review

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A loose, truncated reworking of Emily Bronte's classic story of obsessive love and its multi-generational consequences, this made-for-cable movie reduces the novel's tragically complex relationships to steamy teen-movie fare. Abandoned by their mother, whose wanderlust takes precedence over family, spirited Cate (Katelin Petersen) and her sullen brother, Hendrix (Seth Elijah Adkins), are raised single-handedly by their father, Earnshaw (John Doe), in an old lighthouse called "The Heights." Their lives are forever changed when Earnshaw brings home an abandoned boy named Heath (Adam Taylor Gordon). Earnshaw is never able to locate the child's family, so he raises him like a son. From the start, Cate adores the musically gifted boy while Hendrix resents him. As young adults, Cate (Erika Christensen) and Heath (Mike Vogel, of TV's Grounded for Life) fall in love, which further fuels Hendrix's (Johnny Whitworth) jealousy. Earnshaw dies of a heart attack and leaves Hendrix the Heights, allowing Hendrix to humiliate Heath; Cate comes upon her boyfriend and her lover fighting brutally and has a car accident as she flees in horror. For wealthy neighbor Edward Linton (Christopher Masterson, of TV's Malcolm in the Middle), Cate's mishap is a godsend; he's been nursing a secret crush on her and takes her home to the family mansion to recuperate. Edward's spoiled, manipulative sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl of TV's Roswell) cleverly drives a wedge between Cate and Heath, whom she hopes to seduce. Cate succumbs to Edward's stable charm while Isabel pursues the volatile, embittered Heath. Unfortunately for her, she falls in love with him; Heath accepts her expensive gifts and allows her to engineer his rise to rock stardom, but refuses to pretend he loves her. Heath eventually buys The Heights and evicts Hendrix, but Cathy remains torn between his possessive, all encompassing ardor and Edward's more genteel affections. Though often thought of a sublimely romantic tale, Bronte's story is actually about the ways in which unbridled and unrequited passion stunts and destroys lives. Set in California but shot in Puerto Rico, this bare-bones retelling, conceived by bombastic rock composer Jim Steimann, ends abruptly with the birth of Cate's daughter, which should set the stage for Heath's soul-destroying revenge, and the attractive young actors are way out of their depth. Cate, Heath, Hendrix, Edward and Isabel ultimately seem petulant and selfish rather than doomed by the intensity of their emotions; and instead of culminating in shattering tragedy, their intertwined stories add up to little more than an extended snit. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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