Wuthering Heights by Warner Home Video

Actors

• David Niven
• Laurence Olivier
• Donald Crisp

Format

• Black & White
• NTSC

Editorial Review

The good news about the third feature from Fish Tank's Andrea Arnold: she puts her unique stamp on Emily Brontë's brooding classic. The less-than-good news: it marks her least satisfying film to date. She starts by turning Heathcliff (Solomon Glave) into an escaped slave who materializes on Yorkshire's moors without a back story. Devout farmer Earnshaw takes him in “because it's the Christian thing to do.” Life at Wuthering Heights isn't easy, but the teenager finds a saving grace in Earnshaw's daughter, Catherine (Shannon Beer). After Earnshaw's death, however, Catherine's brother, Hindley, takes over the household and sends Heathcliff off to sleep with the livestock. Then Cathy accepts a proposal from the respectable young man who nursed her back to health after an injury. Heathcliff leaves town only to return a few years later (now played by James Howson) with money in his pocket–and no explanation as to how it got there–but his efforts to win back Cathy (Kaya Scodelario) face several roadblocks, even as their mutual attraction remains strong. Instead of a swoon-worthy story, however, Arnold emphasizes brutality over all other concerns. Heathcliff and Cathy have a sado-masochistic relationship, and they're immune to the feelings of anyone but themselves, making it hard to care what happens to either one of them. The actors give it their all, but animal lovers should be advised that our single-minded antihero has a propensity for strangling small creatures to death that is hard to forgive, no matter how terrible his childhood. –Kathleen C. Fennessy