Wuthering Heights reaches new lows
Director: Andrea Arnold
Screenwriter: Andrea Arnold,
Olivia Hetreed, based on the novel by Emily Brontë
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, James
Howson, Shannon Beer, Solomon Glave and Oliver Milburn
New adaptation of Emily Brontë’s
classic novel about frustrated love. When Heathcliffe (Solomon Glave/James Howson)
is adopted by the Earnshaw family, he falls into a troubled romance between
himself and his foster sister, Cathy (Kaya Scodelario/Shannon Beer).
Running Time: 128m 46s
One wonders whether great stories
can be adapted too much; if there is a point where the tale is so deeply
ingrained in the public consciousness that it simply cannot survive another
retelling. On the other hand, perhaps a story can survive endless tellings and
retellings, or that a mark of a truly great narrative is that it does so.
Whatever one’s thoughts on those
questions, Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of Wuthering
Heights is a clear attempt to inject new life into the classic Emily Brontë
story. More overt racial tensions have been thrown into the storyline with a
black Heathcliffe (though given recent events, it may have been more relevant
to keep him as a gypsy), and there is a greater emphasis on violence and
brutality to both humans and animals than in many other versions of this work.
Unfortunately, none of this serves to make a compelling watch.
