Wuthering Heights

I just went and saw a movie on my own, for the first time in my life. Not too bad. When I arrived at the cinema I thought that I was going to be the only one in there, so I would really be alone but there turned out to be 3 others and they were all on their own too.

The film I saw was Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. With any adaptation, you always have your reservations. "Are they going to do the story justice? Will they get the characters right? Will they be true to the book?" These questions and ones like it are always going to swirl around in peoples' heads if they have read the book before seeing the movie version. Someone who wants to make a movie out of a book is always going to have trouble pleasing everyone. They are doomed to have haters from the start. That is just fact. They will probably want to reinvent the story or add this or add that which will annoy the purists or they won't do it different enough for those that don't want to see an exact reconstruction of the book. It is always bound to be a hard gig but people seem to want to do it anyway.

I went to this picture with an open mind and at the beginning I was really loving it. It was an interesting way to adapt the book and it worked really well. For such a haunting and emotional story, the lengthy wilderness scenes, the focus on the weather to portray the emotions that the characters are feeling and the minimal dialogue that meant heavy reliance on such scenes was really working for me. Also casting Heathcliff as a black man was really fitting. He really captured the mood of the story in his shots.

I was really getting into it when the last half of the movie came. Well I should say the last third because the part where Heathcliff and Cathrine are kids took up most of the movie. It was then I realised that the beginning was far too long and the ending seemed really rushed. And I don't think that this is the kind of story where you can rush the ending. The ending is very important. It's when you realise just how connected these two characters are and how much they hurt each other by continuing to be a part.

I don't remember specific lines or actions from the book, I mean I barely remembered the narrative, but the one thing that has stayed with me over the years is the mood and the feeling of that book. I really thought that this film was killing it but then, they actually did kill it.

I realised that the older characters where miscast. Older Heathcliff (James Howson), for me, was not able to portray the wildness and deep seated anger that he holds so close to his heart that the Heathcliff in the book had. Howson seemed to try to play this character with a lot of Jane-Austin-Mr-Darcy-like brooding and then violence. These things don't fit together all that well. I feel that Heathcliff needs to be constantly struggling to keep himself together and keep from lashing out at people, not just every now and then. Arnold chose to cast non-actors or at least actors with minimal experience and for the older characters, this was something that was off putting for me. I didn't really get a sense of the emotion but got distracted at times by thoughts running through my head of soap opera actors and over-the-top acting. That being said, I don't think that Kaya Scodelario had much of a chance to show her potential and I was mostly happy with her scenes. But I am not saying the actors were awful, far from it. Their performances for the most part were really good but when the time came for these really emotional parts, I was already a little out of sorts with the rushed ending and the increase in dialogue from first half to second half, and didn't quite buy them.


And the younger Cathrine and Heathcliff actors were brilliant. I really enjoyed their performances and was pretty thoroughly convinced with their portrayal of the characters and emotions. Solomon Grave (the younger Heathcliff) was brilliant and really nailed the pain and anger that his character has and Shannon Beer (as young Cathrine) was fairly solid in her part as well.

I mean look at that face.

Oh and Arnold chucks a random Mumford & Sons song right at the end. And this is not a song that plays during the last shot and then cue credits. No. This is song plays over a scene that we have previously seen in the earlier part of the movie and then plays during credits. For a movie that has no underscore and the only music you hear plays for about two bars before it cuts as they change to a new scene, putting a song by Mumford & Sons seems like an odd choice. True it might not be one of their most famous songs, nor does it feature on either of their albums but Marcus Mumford has a very distinct voice and you could recognise it no matter what movie it is being played in.

Maybe I am just being picky.

I think that Andrea Arnold began this project beautifully but I feel like she didn't quite commit 100% to it because parts didn't quite sit right. I think the ending was rushed and that meant that she lost that mood and the feeling of haunted love and connection that the Heathcliff and Cathrine have. I mean these two love each other so much that they have to hurt each other and cause the other as much pain as possible AND they haunt each other from beyond the grave just to really prove their love.

It was probably the best adaptation of this story that I have seen but for me, it was still missing something. If you love the Brönte sisters and their weird, twisted love stories then this is a very interesting way to see Emily's novel. It's good, I just wanted it to be better.

BUT the cinematography by Robbie Ryan is AMAZING. It is so pretty and beautifully shot (maybe at times there were a few too many racking focus shots). Really I could have watched shots of those beautiful moors all day. What lovely countryside and so well captured.

And if you wanted to check out the Mumford & Sons song (because it is a good song I just didn't fit with the film) then here it is;