Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has arrived on HBO Max, bringing Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, and a ready-made argument to the sofa. If you missed the theatrical release, the streaming debut offers a chance to form an opinion without first buying a cinema-sized drink.
The film began streaming on May 1, following the date in Warner Bros. Discovery’s announcement. Robbie plays Catherine and Elordi plays Heathcliff in Fennell’s interpretation of Emily Brontë’s novel. Whether that interpretation is your idea of a good evening is a separate question from how many people are curious enough to press play.
A chart position is not a round of applause
FlixPatrol’s May 2 tables list the film at the top of HBO Max movie charts in several markets, including Australia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. That is evidence of chart presence. It is not a count of viewers, and it is not a survey asking whether they enjoyed the ending.
Someone can watch because they expect to love a film, because a friend recommended it, or because they want to understand why everyone is arguing. A ranking cannot separate those motives for us.
The same caution applies to treating audience and critic scores as rival election results. Different groups are responding through different systems. Popularity does not make a review incorrect, and a disappointed reviewer does not cancel another person’s pleasure. There is no official returning officer for gothic yearning.
What kind of adaptation is this?
In her February review for Sight and Sound, Catherine Wheatley discusses Fennell’s approach as a response to her teenage experience of the book. She describes substantial omissions and a visually extravagant production, while finding that the film falters in its second half.
That is a more useful starting point than expecting a scene-by-scene companion to the novel. It also leaves room for disagreement about what the changes achieve. An adaptation can choose its own emphasis; readers can reasonably care about what that emphasis leaves out.
The debate is not neatly divided into critics who dislike pleasure and audiences who like attractive actors. David Sims’ February review in The Atlantic, for example, is enthusiastic. Critics disagree with other critics. This is one of their most renewable resources.
Charli XCX gives the film another route into the conversation
The companion album has its own audience and its own measure of success: Official Charts records a UK number-one peak for Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights. Enjoying that record does not require adopting a position on every adaptation choice.
Music attached to a screen project can become something people return to independently. Our look at Lana Del Rey’s theme for 007 First Light approaches another meeting of an artist’s identity and an existing fictional world. The song and the production invite related conversations, not identical verdicts.
A reasonable plan for movie night
If you are curious, approach Fennell’s film as an interpretation with a pronounced personality. If you want the novel, read the novel. There is room for both experiences without requiring either one to erase the other.
And if you emerge wanting to discuss costumes, casting, music, or what happened to a favorite part of the book, that is a more interesting conversation than announcing that a chart has settled the matter. The moors are large enough for several opinions. Your group chat may be less accommodating.
