Free Inquiry 3: “Wuthering Heights”

The film I watched this week was Wuthering Heights directed by Emerald Fennell. This film was made in 2026 and was released a few weeks ago. Because of the recent release date I was able to see it in theatres which I found to be a highly enjoyable experience.

There is a lot of backlash that this film has received due mostly in part to its deviation from the book “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë of which this film was meant to be an adaptation. As someone who has not yet read the book I think that this issue, while still important and relevant, did not affect me as much as it did for the many fans of the novel.

In my personal opinion, I think that this is an enjoyable and well made film on its own and should have perhaps been advertised under a different name instead of insinuating it would be similar to the book which it was not. On its own and away from the context of being an adaptation, I think that Wuthering Heights is a film that conveyed its story through very well thought out costumes and sets but dwindled in the script.

The film Wuthering Heights centres around Cathy and Heathcliff and their tumultuous relationship that shifts between that of friendship to later romance and obsession. Because the film is very new, a plot summary could not be found at imdb.com but I was able to find a very spoiler filled plot summary from wikipedia here.

My favourite part of this film was the costumes and how they were used to tell a separate story to what was going on within the plot itself. Particularly in Cathy’s costumes, I found there to be a clear distinction about what was going on with her character and inner thoughts reflected back through her costumes. One example of this was in the scene after her wedding where she arrives at her husband’s room in a pink, pearly sheer dress. This dress resembled plastic in the way it sat on her and reflected light. I found this to be very reflective of how she was not entirely happy in her new marriage and the fake persona she was putting on to appear happy while she mourned losing Heathcliff. In addition to this, I thought this costume reflected on how Cathy was seen as a prize to her husband and a gift for him to unwrap in her plastic wrapping.

Because this film is so new, I was not able to find clips of the scenes I would like to show but I was able to find this video which discusses some of the visual aspects of the film which I found to be interesting.