Wuthering Heights (1992) - film review

The Earnshaws live at Wuthering Heights, a gothic mansion set on the bleak moors in the north of England.  Young Cathy Earnshaw is given a playmate when her father adopts a gipsy boy Heathcliff.   The two children develop a close friendship which blossoms into love when they come of age.  But then Cathy meets a wealthy landowner, Linton, who asks her to marry him.   Cathy accepts and Heathcliffe disappears in a rage.  Years later, Heathcliffe returns, determined to bring a terrible revenge on his own and Linton’s families...

Watching this film, you quickly get the impression that the production set out with one aim: to come up with the most faithful, authentic-looking adaptation of the famous novel by Emily Brontë.  Not only does the film adhere religiously to the novel, even quoting passages from the text, but its cinematography and period detail vividly evoke the kind of images you imagine when reading the book.  Unfortunately, that is really all there is: visual images.  This is a film which lacks soul, lacks imagination, and leaves little for the spectator to do than get bored.  Reading the original novel is an infinitely more rewarding experience than watching the film.

The film’s biggest problem is its choice of lead actors.  Both Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes are very capable actors, but neither is remotely suited to the role each plays in this film. Binoche lacks the passion of the first Catherine and the vulnerability of the second, so, despite what is technically a good performance, she appears totally out of place. Ralph Fiennes’s performance is much worse, however, and borders on the pantomime villain.  Fiennes shows none of the tortured complexity of the Heathcliff in Brontë’s novel.  All we see is a bitter, twisted man who likes hitting women and shouting.  In a performance that lacks subtlety of any kind, Fiennes more or less single-handedly destroys any humanity the film may have possessed.  Not only does he fail to have any rapport whatever with Binoche, he appears to have no rapport at all with the character he is playing.

This could have been an admirable adaptation of a fine romantic novel – it has the production values an excellent period drama.  Unfortunately, it is marred by miscasting and some complacent direction.

© James Travers 2000

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