BEFORE: OK, so from Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde and now Emily Bronte, I've got this whole English lit thing covered this February, I think. How did I get this far in life without either reading "Wuthering Heights" or watching any of the many filmed versions, I wonder? I watched "Jane Eyre" a few years ago, that one was from another Bronte sister, I think. Kids, I'm not here to help you with your book reports, the film versions often differ greatly from the source novels, so you're probably best off doing your own reading if you want a passing grade.
Jeremy Northam carries over from "An Ideal Husband".
THE PLOT: A man becomes obsessed with vengeance when his soul mate marries another man.
AFTER: Some people regard this story as the greatest love story ever - while others regard it as a sad Gothic tale about violence and abuse. Can it possibly be both? I'm seeing a fair amount of "Mansfield Park" in this one, of course that could be because I JUST watched the filmed version of that Jane Austen story two days ago - but Jane Austen came before the Bronte sisters, I think (yep, just checked, "Mansfield Park" was published about three decades before "Wuthering Heights") so it's very possible that Emily was influenced by Jane. Austen's story is about a poor girl being sent to live with rich relatives, and in Bronte's novel, a poor boy from the streets in London is taken in by a rich (OK, richer) family. And then in "Mansfield Park" the relationship between Fanny and Edmund is challenged when the Crawford family moves next door, and here the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is challenged when she starts hanging out with the Lintons, from next door (relatively speaking, of course, this is set on the British moors so "next door" could mean ten miles down the road).
In "Mansfield Park", Edmund and Fanny were raised almost as brother and sister, and so he doesn't realize that he loves her until she's engaged to Henry Crawford - and in "Wuthering Heights", Heathcliff and Catherine were raised almost as brother and sister, and so Heathcliff doesn't realize that he loves Catherine until she's engaged to Edgar Linton. Austen and Bronte were definitely working from the same playbook, only "Wuthering Heights" is so much darker. Heathcliff is portrayed in this film as some kind of noble savage, he's practically feral and most often shirtless. But then after Catherine gets engaged, he disappears for a while, and when he comes back on the scene, he's a proper gentleman and he's got enough money to purchase the old family castle, Wuthering Heights. I looked up "wuthering" in the dictionary, and it just means "very windy" or "pertaining to strong winds", so that must be one very drafty castle!
Catherine comes in contact with the Lintons while she and Heathcliff are peeking in their windows, and she gets bitten by their dog. The family takes her in and shoos Heathcliff away, and she ends up spending like three months there. For a dog bite? Surely they don't take three months to heal, so let's just assume that the Lintons have a much nicer residence, probably one that isn't so Wuthering. But she comes back, and she promises Heathcliff that she will "always come back" and I'll admit this sounds very romantic at the early part of the film but that's bound to get a lot creepier as time wears on.
This is because of the framing sequence - at the start of the novel (and the film) Wuthering Heights is visited by Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant on the estate. He visits during a violent rain storm and asks Heathcliff, the owner/caretaker for an escort back to the Grange, only he is turned down. Forced to spend the night at Wuthering Heights, he's shown into a closed-off room and gets visited by a ghost - well, she did say she'd always come back. And who is the young woman who looks so much like a younger version of the ghost, and for that matter, who are the other inhospitable people residing at this estate? The book (and the film) then flashes back a few decades to explain the story of how Heathcliff came to own the estate and Catherine came to be a ghost.
Thirty years prior, the Earnshaws lived at Wuthering Heights with their two children, Hindley and Catherine, and their servant, Nelly. Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip to London with a young street ruffian that he thinks would make a fine addition to the family, and that's Heathcliff. He's so poor that he can't even afford a last name, although according to Wikipedia this is also his surname, so he's either got one name like Madonna or Cher, or his name is Heathcliff Heathcliff.
Time goes by, the kids grow up, Hindley abuses Heathcliff before he moves away to school, but when the father dies and Hindley takes over the estate, bringing his wife and son to W.H., he forces Heathcliff to become a servant if he wants to stay on the estate. Heathcliff and Catherine had been growing closer over the years, but in the end, marriage is out of the question, because they come from different classes, and how can Heathcliff be with Catherine if he's a lowly servant?
Then into this mix come the Lintons, and Catherine has feelings for Edgar Linton, while any love she has for Heathcliff is invalid, because she thinks of him more like a brother, ironically they're too close for her to feel romantic love for Heathcliff, she confesses. Heathcliff overhears this dilemma of hers, and, well, let's just say he doesn't take it well. This is when he disappears for a few years, and somehow comes back with enough money to own the place. He appears to be interested romantically in Isabella Linton, but this could just be a way for him to regain Catherine's attention. Edgar Linton disapproves of Heathcliff courting his sister, and kicks him out - a pregnant Catherine then takes ill and retires to her room. Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, but the relationship is apparently a non-starter.
Catherine gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, and dies shortly thereafter. Heathcliff calls upon Catherine's ghost to come and haunt him for the rest of his life, and, well, I guess be careful what you wish for, Heathcliff. Heathcliff, for some reason, digs up Catherine's grave, and I guess that will cause a floating ghost to come knocking on your window every night. Is this the romantic part?
The ending sort of explains who all those people living at the estate at the beginning were - Cathy (daughter of Catherine and played by the same actress), Hareton Earnshaw (son of Hindley Earnshaw and his wife Frances) and Linton Heathcliff (son of Isabella Linton and Heathcliff Heathcliff). Cathy is attracted to Linton, but eventually takes up with Hareton, it's like a next generation remake of the love triangle between Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar, right? She's raised with the feral, savage one, but is ultimately more attracted to the refined, rich one. The only thing is, as far as I can tell from the family tree, they're all cousins. Again, this was a lot more accepted back in those times, but still, why are Cathy's choices limited to only getting married to either one cousin or the other? It's a big world, with a lot of men in it who are NOT her cousins, I'm just saying.
There is yet another framing device here, which seems like one too many - the author Emily Bronte is seen visiting the ruins of Wuthering Heights, and figuring out what must have happened here in the past (a lot of cousin-on-cousin action, apparently). This is unnecessary, as the book already HAD the framing device of Mr. Lockwood visiting during the big storm - do we really need to see the author getting inspired enough to write the damn book? Plus, this pulls out of the reality, and suggests that maybe NONE of this really happened, that it's all just some author's imagination. Well, isn't it?
As for romance, yeah, maybe there's just a little too much violence for this to count as a romance. It's strongly implied here that Heathcliff beat up Isabella - for the crime of not being Catherine, I suppose - and that doesn't really make him a sympathetic character. Jeez, dude, it's 1847 and not many people live past the age of 40 - 50 if they're lucky. If you don't like the fact that the woman you love married somebody else, just wait a couple years, he'll probably catch tuberculosis or whooping couch or something, and then you'll be there to pick up the pieces. Patience is a virtue, Heathcliff.
Also starring Juliette Binoche (last seen in "Paris, Je t'Aime"), Ralph Fiennes (last seen in "Spielberg"), Janet McTeer (last seen in "The Woman in Black"), Sophie Ward (last seen in "Jane Eyre" (2011)), Simon Shepherd, Jason Riddington, Simon Ward (last seen in "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed"), Paul Geoffrey, John Woodvine (last seen in "Miss Potter"), Jennifer Daniel, Janine Wood, Jonathan Firth, Jon Howard, Jessica Hennell, Steven Slarke, Trevor Cooper (last seen in "Vanity Fair"), Rupert Holliday-Evans, Sean Bowden, Dick Sullivan, Robert Demeger with a cameo from Sinéad O'Connor (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project").
RATING: 5 out of 10 crooked trees
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