‘Wuthering Heights’ First Reactions: Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi Ignite a ‘Bodice-Ripping Crowd-Pleaser’

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Feb 7

Emerald Fennell’s ferocious reimagining of Wuthering Heights is being hailed as a lusty, lavish spectacle — and an early box office and awards contender for Warner Bros.

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has finally been unveiled to members of the film press ahead of its February 13 theatrical release, and early reactions suggest Warner Bros. may have its most provocative crowd-pleaser of the year on its hands. Critics are praising the film as a steamy, visually extravagant reinvention of Emily Brontë’s 1847 literary classic, with particular emphasis on the volatile chemistry between Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Across social media, the consensus has been loud and immediate: this is not a restrained prestige adaptation, but a full-bodied, emotionally maximalist romance that leans hard into desire, obsession, and spectacle.

Film critic Courtney Howard called the film “a god-tier new classic,” singling out Fennell’s command of tone and atmosphere. In a post shared on X, Howard described the film as “intoxicating, transcendent, tantalizing, bewitching,” praising Linus Sandgren’s cinematography as “spellbinding” and Suzie Davies’ production design as “sublime.” Howard noted that the film captures “the breathtaking ache and essence of desire” with uncommon confidence.

Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay echoed that enthusiasm, labeling Wuthering Heights a “scorching hot twisted tale” and emphasizing the chemistry between Robbie and Elordi as being on “a whole other level of HOT.” Tangcay credited Fennell with turning a canonical text inside out, writing that the film is “an exquisite spectacle of craftsmanship” whose costumes, cinematography, and production design are impossible to look away from. “Only Emerald could take a classic, turn it on its head, make you fall completely in lust, and then utterly destroy your soul,” she wrote.

Entertainment writer Scott Menzel went further, predicting significant commercial and awards-season success. Menzel called the film “destined to be a massive hit for Warner Bros.” and suggested it will cement Fennell as “one of the most in-demand filmmakers working today.” He also highlighted the film’s technical strength, pointing to cinematography, costume design, production design, and score as likely awards contenders. Of Elordi’s performance, Menzel added that audiences who already see him as a rising star after Euphoria, Saltburn, and Frankenstein “haven’t seen anything yet.”

IndieWire editor-at-large Anne Thompson similarly forecasted strong box office results, calling the film a “rip-roaring, bodice-ripping crowd-pleaser.” Thompson predicted that both Robbie and Elordi would “come out ahead,” noting that audiences are likely to respond enthusiastically to Fennell’s “garish visuals” and “unrestrained direction.” “Everything is BIG,” she wrote — a sentiment that appears to define the film’s overall reception so far.

Based on Emily Brontë’s 19th-century novel, Wuthering Heights centers on the doomed, deeply forbidden romance between Cathy, played by Robbie, a wealthy patrician woman, and Heathcliff, portrayed by Elordi, a magnetic social outsider. After Cathy pledges herself to another man, Heathcliff returns determined to reclaim her love, setting off a chain of emotional and romantic destruction. The supporting cast includes Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif, Martin Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell, while the film also features original music from pop superstar Charli xcx — a modern touch that critics have already flagged as an inspired addition.

Fennell’s adaptation enters a long lineage of Wuthering Heights film and television versions, most famously William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. The novel has been revisited repeatedly over the decades, including versions directed by Andrea Arnold in 2011, as well as earlier adaptations featuring Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Timothy Dalton, and Tom Hardy. Yet early reactions suggest Fennell’s take may be the boldest attempt yet to translate the novel’s raw emotional violence for contemporary audiences.

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The director has been candid about her obsession with the source material. Speaking at the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival in England last year, Fennell described herself as a lifelong devotee of the novel and admitted she would have been “furious” if she hadn’t been the one to bring it into the modern cinematic landscape. Her stated goal, she said, was not fidelity for its own sake, but emotional impact.

“I wanted to make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it,” Fennell explained. “That feeling is primal. Sexual. It’s an emotional response, not an intellectual one.”

If early reactions are any indication, Fennell has achieved exactly that — delivering a film that embraces excess, sensuality, and obsession without apology. Whether Wuthering Heights ultimately lives up to its early hype remains to be seen, but for now, Warner Bros. appears to have a buzzy, provocative romance that’s already igniting conversations about box office potential, awards viability, and one of the hottest on-screen pairings of the year.