Wuthering Heights (2011)

81% of critics liked it
(27 reviews)
54% want to see it
(1,343 ratings)

A Yorkshire hill farmer on a visit to Liverpool finds a homeless boy on the streets. He takes him home to live as part of his family on the isolated Yorkshire moors where the boy forges an obsessive relationship with the farmer's daughter. Based on the novel by Emily Brontë and adapted for the… More A Yorkshire hill farmer on a visit to Liverpool finds a homeless boy on the streets. He takes him home to live as part of his family on the isolated Yorkshire moors where the boy forges an obsessive relationship with the farmer's daughter. Based on the novel by Emily Brontë and adapted for the screen by Andrea Arnold and Olivia Hetreed, Wuthering Height stars newcomer James Howson as Heathcliff and Kaya Scodelario as Cathy alongside Steve Evets (Joseph), Oliver Milburn (Mr Linton), and Nicola Burley (Isabella Linton). -- (C) Artificial Eye

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 8 min.
Directed By: Andrea Arnold
Genres: Drama, Romance

Studio: Artificial Eye

Critic Reviews

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine
Faithful and bold...
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
This is no Merchant Ivory version of the often-adapted classic.
Andrew Collins, Radio Times
It's a boldly modernist approach designed to irritate purists, and although it's pleasingly tactile, it's perhaps too avant garde; its fractured narrative and glimpses of lens flare constantly break the spell of the period fiction.
Alistair Harkness, Scotsman
Deserves a lot of credit for approaching sacred source material in such a radical form.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
The film is by no means negligible.
David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]
It's not a costume drama in any real sense, with blusters of wind standing in for dialogue and, frankly, sheer boredom subbing for Brontë's look into the riddles of the human heart.
David Sexton, This is London
This Wuthering Heights, sponsored by the UK Film Council, may well please the juries. It isn't going to give you a good night out, though. Believe me. Writhing in your seat never lies.
Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
A would-be sophisticated but actually naive attempt to turn Emily Bronte's fascinating, emotionally involving romantic melodrama into the most alienating kind of brutalism.
Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express
Arrestingly shot in natural light, with no soundtrack, the moors have never seemed more alien or bleak and this does stay with you but at over two hours long it's rather hard work.
Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
I'd say this astonishing adaptation of Wuthering Heights was one of the most impressive costume dramas I've seen in years, except it's so far removed from any normal expectations of the genre that I'd hesitate to call it a costume drama at all.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
Even squeezed into the film's square frame, Arnold's trademark, like snaps from an early box camera, Ryan's images are often overpowering.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The film gave me something I never expect to get from any classic literary adaptation: the shock of the new.
Jason Best, Movie Talk
Arnold's radical approach might have worked but for one fatal flaw. Her Heathcliff can't act.
Graham Young, Birmingham Post
Where's the dangerous passion and emotion which has kept the book alive down the generations for so long?
Philip Concannon, The Skinny
There have been many screen versions of Wuthering Heights but we've never seen one quite like this.
Francesca Steele, Sky Movies
This is definitely a film to watch - but only as part of a discourse on what love is. Despite a very committed vision and understatedly solid actors, somehow this never quite feel like what Emily Brontë intended.
Kevin Harley, Total Film
There's something satisfyingly jolting about the way Arnold makes Brontë her own.
Lisa Giles-Keddie, Real.com
Arnold, who is known to be a very instinctive film-maker, aims for the dark heart of the novel ... Nature is her only true star in this.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Anthony L

Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Bronte's classic Wuthering Heights is unlike most adaptations. It's not dialogue heavy but instead relies on bringing the words to life. It's probably not how many people would picture, it's probably not the way I pictured it when… More
Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Bronte's classic Wuthering Heights is unlike most adaptations. It's not dialogue heavy but instead relies on bringing the words to life. It's probably not how many people would picture, it's probably not the way I pictured it when I first read it but it is probably as close as it could be to what it would have been like. Arnold has literally brought the story to life, warts and all and it is a real unexpected pleasure. A few other directors could take note, an Andrea Arnold Jane Austin would go down a storm and a Thomas Hardy would have people throwing themselves in front of buses - this is how you do a period drama! So refreshing, I suppose I'm not surprised in one way because I love Arnold's film but it's almost like reading a favourite book for a second time and even though you know the story, it feels like the first time you fell in love with it. Brilliant.
Hassan V

The first half of this film is just wonderful. The two unknown actors who play a young Heathcliff and young Catherine are fantastic and Andrea Arnold brings out the best performance of the whole film from the cold, stinging Yorkshire landscape. With shoestring dialogue and delicate… More
The first half of this film is just wonderful. The two unknown actors who play a young Heathcliff and young Catherine are fantastic and Andrea Arnold brings out the best performance of the whole film from the cold, stinging Yorkshire landscape. With shoestring dialogue and delicate camera work and the howl of wind replacing any soundtrack it is a raw, haunting piece. It is not an adaptation of the book, but a total re-write; it gives a classic story a rare shock of new. Unfortunately the second half of the film turned my amazement into frustration. When dialogue stepped up more, the two actors replaced by the older and less effective ones and the Yorkshire moors gets shoved aside by a dull period manor house. I spent most of this half just thinking about the themes explored in the first hour.
Henrik S

For a film that is purely and only about sex and passion, this take on the story relies too much on conceptual imagery and symbolism too touch me. I found the craftsmanship behind the film very appealing but the characters did not manage to break out of the very restrained directorial… More
For a film that is purely and only about sex and passion, this take on the story relies too much on conceptual imagery and symbolism too touch me. I found the craftsmanship behind the film very appealing but the characters did not manage to break out of the very restrained directorial handwriting of this movie and as such, I felt more like observing the unfolding of a natural disaster than the fate of human beings. Of course, a film or literary critic might argue that this is exactly what the book tries to express in the first place, the inevitability and impact of unfulfilled love and desire in times of social restraints and racial hatred, but I think with my heart, not my head and this film is too much 'film' and not enough 'life' to appeal to me. I;d rather take the story at face value and see it as a powerful and very basic drama of human needs than a philosophical pondering on impossible love. Not for me, but some people will love this.