Film Review: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992)
There comes a time when the author of this review must admit that there are gaps in his "general culture." In other words, there are some classic works of literature that I haven’t read or I’m not familiar enough with to consider themselves as erudite as I would like to be. One such example is Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Brontë and a classic of English literature.
Having limited time to read the novel, I watched a Discovery Channel documentary series dedicated to Great Books. One of the episodes was dedicated to "Wuthering Heights." The documentary focused heavily on the life of Emily Brontë, leaving little time to discuss the novel itself. The information provided about the plot and characters led me to believe that the novel was not as great as it had been hyped up to be. Some of these suspicions were confirmed with the 1992 film adaptation directed by Peter Kosminsky.
The plot, set in rural Yorkshire in early 19th Century, describes the conflict between individual passion and strict norms of English society. The two major protagonists are Heathcliff (played by Ralph Fiennes), a poor gypsy adopted by a landowning family, and landowner's daughter and Heathcliff's foster sister Catherine Earnshaw (played by Juliette Binoche). The two grow up and fall desperately in love with each other, but, since Heathcliff doesn't have a proper background, she marries wealthy landowner Edgar Linton (played by Simon Shepherd). Hurt and humiliated, Heathcliff leaves the manor only to return years later as a very rich but still embittered man with terrible vengeance on his mind.
Wuthering Heights is a very dark film, and this might come as a shock to those viewers who based their perception of rural 19th Century England on the novels by Jane Austen. The vision of Emily Brontë is much more realistic and shows how people's happiness can be destroyed both by social pressure and their own personal demons. While the novel was referenced as the best known Gothic romance, the film is more Gothic than romantic and the protagonists often commit violent and morally questionable acts. This is a problem for Wuthering Heights, because viewers are forced to sympathise with people who couldn't tolerate in real life.
While the costumes, production design, and cinematography are great, as it was the case with most classic literary adaptations in the 1990s, the acting is not. Ralph Fiennes is effective as troubled Heathcliff, but he lacks chemistry with Juliette Binoche, who is too cold as the film's heroine. Matters aren't helped with the decision to cast Binoche in dual roles of Catherine Earnshaw and Cathy Linton. The music score by Ryuichi Sakamoto makes this film sound good, but the general impression is still mostly disappointing, and "Wuthering Heights" could be recommended only to those already interested in the novel.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: Original version of the review is available here.)
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