Kathleen E Adams

I finally watched #WutheringHeights, and it was pretty much what I expected. I think the key to loving it is to view it as fanfic for Pride&Prejudice (one post called it Pride & Precipitation 😂). It was like “let’s make Darcy morally gray and add spice.” The wet shirt/ declaration of love in the rain felt a little too derivative of the P&P movies to me. And Heathcliff felt more like Gatsby or even the Count of Monte Cristo than the character from the book. Also, why was he a pirate? Basically, the director created a fanfic movie combining all these romance movies based on 19-20th century books.

I get stripping it to a minimal cast of characters. I mean, Lockwood is just the worst anyways. And if she included any of that frame story/ second gen, Heathcliff would not be likable even as a morally gray MMC. He was black-hearted, not gray. But so too was Catherine. Both were more redeemable in the movie version, and you actually rooted for their romance. Esp. since the movie ignored the fact that they were likely half siblings. Catherine was never going to marry Heathcliff in the book.

It was weird to add race where there was none and to remove it from where it was. It felt like the influence of Bridgerton, which worked in the first season but got a bit ridiculous as the seasons went on. Heathcliff might have been horrible, but everyone was horrible to him. And racist. It was a major point in making it obvious Catherine was never going to be w/ him.

As for a study in overt, in-your-face symbolism & imagery (esp. color) it was great. For the those who read literature and complain about not getting it, this movie would be perfect. My students might even get it, though I’d never show it 😬

There was no doubt what things symbolized–mostly because they all just symbolized sex or sexual jealousy/sexual repression/sexual awakening.

Except when gold=gold.

The eggs, the dough, the flesh- colored walls, the dolls, the green room, etc. 🥚

Don’t get me wrong. I did enjoy the movie. And I did actually love the book. I might have quoted the soul thing in my wedding vows 😂 even though their souls (& probably DNA) were made of the same horrid stuff. I mean she does say they’re fire and lightning as opposed to moonbeams. And her point was kinda that we can’t marry ourselves. At least as far as I remember. It’s been a while and I didn’t finish rereading the book before watching the movie.

Still, I like the concept of two souls being made of the same stuff and that we live on in each other.

“He is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained, and we were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. He’s always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”

-Emily Brontë