Wuthering Heights (1992)

How can you give this 5 stars?

It's a bit of a disaster, this movie. I thought I ought to try and balance out the 5-star reviews that top the pile of most recent comments with a few of my own before anyone actually buys the DVD. Rent it first, if you still can, and see what you think. Like any movie from a book, it's bound to draw comparisons with the original story. If you're not familiar with the story you might think oh, it's a bit odd, but not so bad. If you are familiar with the story but you've never been to Yorkshire and met Yorkshire people, you still might think it's ok. If you can really get inside Bronte's Yorkshire, and the character and temperament of people you are likely to meet there, this picture is a joke. I'm sure Miss Bronte would titter at this effort to dramatize her novel. Juliette Binoche is woefully miscast and her acting is uncomfortably contrived in some scenes. Ralph Fiennes is about as much a brooding Yorkshire gypsy with smouldering looks as I am a fairy princess; he's just plain psycho. And where did that ridiculous house come from? The Earnshaw's home sums it all up; it's as if a B movie director wanted to shoot a Hollywood version of the England of his imagination on a Culver City backlot without ever actually going there. Rather than gaunt, the house is almost funny, a parody of a gothic-horror Victorian villa. And to top it off, there are so many irritating small details. Not only does the house look fake, but Fiennes wig isn't fit to stand close-ups and in one scene where a fire is supposed to be glowing in the hearth the light looks like it is cast from a lamp on one of those electric glow fireplaces you find in the hardware stores around Christmas. Picky picky, yes, but irritating and destroying the chance for credibility. You don't want to be drawn to an actor's wig in an important scene. So yes, it follows the book, but flippin' heck, sometimes it's like following one of those "compressed Shakespeare" plays. You know, the entire works in 5 minutes. You may have to pause the DVD once or twice for everyone to catch up on exactly who's who and what happened before the camera got there. All a bit sad really. Wuthering Heights is a fiercely dramatic story that is obviously difficult to compress into movie length and to play convincingly. I'm still waiting for the definitive screen version to arrive. It will be worth it. In the meantime, this one is probably best forgotten. August 6, 2008

Fiennes and Binoche, simply outstanding

The performance of Binoche and Finness in Wuthering Heights was amazingly powerful. People often criticize the movie, but, I believe, the director was extraordinarily faithful to the original story. All criticism was directed at how sadistic Heathcliff(Ralph Fiennes) was towards everybody. It is the director's right to add or omit whatever he finds necessary to make a movie version of the book. In this case, the director's choice was to have the characters semi identical to the book's original ones.

It's very simple, if you loved the novel, you would love the movie and forgive the portions that were omitted, and admire the total focus on Heathcliff's anger, and evil side. It's not the movie/director/actors' fault that the novel original characters are actually defected, imperfect human beings.

Even though Wuthering Heights is a great piece of literature, a wild emotional story that is written in a fascinating way, the characters always puzzled me. If everybody is calling Heathcliff a sadistic crazy man, what then is Catherine? I believe that Catherine is even more sadistic and cruel than any other character in the novel.

Catharine was completely engaged in self worship and didn't care about any other human being. The only thing she loved about Heathcliff was his love and devotion to her. She enjoyed breaking his heart, breaking her husband's heart, and enjoyed torturing Edgar's sister with her sense of entitlement to Heathcliff and his love.

"..Why did you betray your heart Catherine?....I forgive my murderer, but yours, I will never forgive..." yeah, Fiennes got to me saying these words, but for the love of God, how delusional can people be? Nobody broke Heathcliff's heart but his Catherine, and no one killed Catherine.

Five stars, to Wuthering Heights for its timeless depiction of human dark side, and when I say dark side, I mean every character in the movie except Catharine the daughter. To me, Catharine the daughter is the only character with some common sense and virtue. I would give more than five stars to the movie if possible, simply because Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche captured so well, the darkest side of love and selfishness as the stars of a great novel.
June 3, 2008

often misread

Lots of people watch or read Wuthering Heights expecting a grand love story. It is NOT a love story; anything but!
It's a story of obsession, revenge and destruction, and finally of rebirth in the next generation. (Remind anybody of Tess of the D'Urbervilles? It should.)
This is an excellent film version. I watched it over twice in the same sitting. (And, I've read the book.)You could hardly imagine a more sinister tale better told than this. The main characters' utter devotion to their own little world at the thoughtless expense of all else comes through loud and clear.
I'm buying this DVD today to help my daughter better understand the themes of her next high school English assignment & I will have her watch it when she's finished the book; I have no doubt she will enjoy it. And I will enjoy watching it yet again! May 12, 2008

Love a speedy delivery!

I received this video quickly and much to my surprise. It is a good movie which really helped me to understand the book better. April 29, 2008

Great scenery but uninspired rendition

I understand the script of the movie closely matches the original classic, but results in a rather uninspired rendition that even Juliette Binoche and Ralf Fiennes can not enliven. The DVD is definitely worth it for anyone (like me) wanting to get to know the story without reading the novel but is otherwise a little tedious to watch. February 25, 2008

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