|
Wuthering Heights
| Released |
11 November 2011 |
| Director |
Andrea Arnold |
Starring
|
Kaya Scodelario, Oliver Milburn, James Hewson, Nichola Burley, Amy Wren, James Northcote |
| Writer(s) |
Andrea Arnold, Olivia Hetreed |
Producer(s)
|
Robert Bernstein, Kevin Loader, Douglas Rae |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
129 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama, romance |
| Rating |
15A |
|
|
Such great Heights.
Despite my love of wailing along with Kate Bush, I have always found Wuthering Heights itself deeply unappealing thanks to what is surely the most obnoxious love match in literary history. Yes Cathy and Heathcliff; one an unfeeling harridan, the other a violent brute. They treat each other appallingly and it all ends in tragedy and heartbreak. Richly deserved tragedy and heartbreak if you ask me... But hearing that Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) was stepping in to direct this new version, my interest was piqued. Pleasingly, Arnold has made the piece very much her own. Though it stays true to the original storyline, her distinctive visual style transforms how the audience experiences this well worn tale.
For those unfamiliar with the story, it concerns a young orphan named Heathcliff (played by Solomon Glave as a child, James Howson as an adult), who is found roaming the streets of Liverpool by a God-fearing farmer named Earnshaw. Earnshaw takes Heathcliff to his home to become one of the family, much to the fury of his eldest son Hindley and the curiosity of his daughter Cathy (Shannon Beer as a child, Kaya Scodelario as an adult). Cathy and Heathcliff form an intense relationship that lasts all their lives, despite them being separated by circumstance.
The biggest liberty Arnold takes with the story (aside from a peppering of bad language) is to make this Heathcliff black. This works well, making the prejudice faced by Heathcliff a result of race rather than class. The bigger change is in tone. Arnold strips away the gothic romanticism of the piece as if it has been stripped by the scalding winds that furiously whip the moors. The film is still sensually rich though. The handheld camera brings great intimacy to small inconsequential moments that build the intense relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy; the feel of a feather, dust particles floating in shallow light, hair whipped by the wind. The effect is genuinely intoxicating.
Where the film suffers is in its second half, when the adult Heathcliff returns from his travels to find the grown-up Cathy. The older actors fail to replicate the intense chemistry that was there between their younger selves. Although Arnold dots their scenes with flashbacks to earlier experiences, the intensity that made the first half of the film so remarkable just isn’t there. Still, this is definitely my favourite take on the story; a rough beauty of a film worthy to take its place in Arnold’s formidable collection.
-
Linda O’Brien |
