Wuthering Heights

The battle of the Bronte sisters is at its blistering climax. With Jane Eyre raking in over £10 million in the US, Andrea Arnold’s visionary adaptation of Emily Bronte’s literature classic, Wuthering Heights takes it turn at harnessing the poetical themes of a golden generation.

Wuthering Heights is the tale of orphan boy Heathcliff who is taken in by the God fearing Earnshaw family. Scorned by his foster brother, Heathcliff finds relief in his fierce relationship with foster sister, Cathy. As Cathy is married into the wealthy Linton family, Heathcliff sets out to make his fortune in the hope of one day returning to his beloved Cathy a rich man.

From the director of BAFTA award winning film, Fish Tank,Arnold’s depiction of the Bronte classic is as dark and edgy as the Yorkshire weather itself. The cinematography, typical of the directors films is very shaky and at times migraine inducing. Choosing to highlight the sensory nature of young love, touch, smell and taste become dominant, vindicating the head spinning camera work.

James Howson was cast in the role of Heathcliff following open auditions across Yorkshire. Howson’s performance resembled that of a far more distinguished actor than his experience suggests. The film really comes into its element when the darkness of youthful naivety is banished by the summer of tormented adulthood. At times the young stars’ dialect is too modern for a classic adaptation and the story could conceivably be set instead in a modern dayLeedscouncil estate.

The power of love is the harshest of themes. Contrasted by the gales and storms on the Moors, young love is bruised and battered and it is difficult at times to watch the patriarchically enforced submissive restraints of love. As the characters age, summer and shots of the pure beauty of nature on the Moors become visceral, however the intense expulsion of love is gut-wrenching and the deneaumont is frighteningly brave. The conclusion thus is only belittled by the choice to play a Mumford and Sons song in the final scene.

Wuthering Heights is a tale of two halves, the latter being a masterpiece in the sensory nature of unrelenting love and the previous being more of a one-dimensional bleak pouring of stormy ignorance.