Emerald Fennell's film is not the first Jacob Elordi-starring remix of a classic novel. Why is it so hated?
commentary
Emerald Fennell's film is not the first Jacob Elordi-starring remix of a classic novel. Why is it so hated?
Published
February 23, 2026 1:30PM (EST)
Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Emerald Fennell's take on Emily Bronte's classic novel has received a mixed response from film reviewers.
COLUMN. Cinematic adaptations have transformed Emily Brontë's 1847 novel from a political firebrand into an innocuous love story,…
Bad boy Heathcliff is described as ethnically ambiguous and ‘dark’ in the novel, yet is played by a pretty straightforward white…
Robbie addresses backlash to casting Elordi as a character described by Brontë as ‘dark-skinned’, while Fennell praises her…
Emerald Fennell doesn't stick to Emily Brontë’s book and that's OK. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star in your new obsession, \
By turning the novel into just a corset-heaving love story, the director has stripped it of what made it so boundary-pushing,…
