There’s no denying Emerald Fennell knows how to stage a movie. WUTHERING HEIGHTS looks terrific, and once again she shows a real knack for upending genre expectations and making familiar material feel jagged, glossy, and unstable. This new version stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi and is Fennell’s loose reinterpretation of Emily Brontë’s novel, following her earlier collaboration with cinematographer Linus Sandgren after SALTBURN.

That said, the shock-value stuff is starting to feel like a bit. Coming off SALTBURN, some of the provocation here lands less like bold authorship and more like someone elbowing you in the ribs going, “Did you see that?” After a while, it just gets tired. I didn’t hate WUTHERING HEIGHTS. There are things here I admired, especially the visual style and Fennell’s refusal to make the material feel polite. But admiration and affection are not the same thing, and I can already tell you I’ll never watch it again.

The movie made money and clearly found an audience, so this isn’t some catastrophic misfire. It just didn’t connect with me in the way I wanted it to. I appreciate the swing. I’m just not all that interested in seeing this particular pitch again.

Listen to our conversation about this movie during the KVNU For the People Movie Show, listen to past episodes, and check out the trailer for WUTHERING HEIGHTS below.