Everything I see for this movie keeps turning me more and more off of it. The trailers, which show a whole bunch of nothing, and what they DO show is the exact opposite of what 50 years of reading and studying the novel has shown me.
Music by Charlie XCX. God help us all.
I assume the long gestating story about the opening scene is just not true; I think that's all been debunked by now (now positive but think that's the case); but Fennell really doesn't have anything OTHER than Salt Burn to blame for that mythologizing having gone around. And again; there's that brief moment in the trailer of what appears to be Elordi licking a wall, that, well, for the Salt Burn fans out there I think you know where that leads. Not a great enticement for me to go see this film LOL (I was mostly disgusted and put off by Salt Burn).
And so on.
I guess I hope the movie does well; I certainly hope it's better than what the trailers have hinted at.
For the last 6 months or more I've been watching these trailers and teasers, and I was immediately convinced that this movie was going to be an enormous box office TANK. But clearly, the producers figured out the opening weekend (make it a Valentine's Day Date movie!!). The last time I doubted Robbie was Barbie, and we all know how that went; the film had enormous legs. So I guess the question now is, is the movie really good, which it will need to be to have legs beyond the Valentine's Day weekend.
The two best adaptations of the book are far and away the 1939 William Wyler version, and the early 90's version that was Fienne's first film role. The key difference between the two is of course that the 39 doesn't tell the whole story of the novel, only the first half, while the Binoche/Fiennes does the best job tackling the entire story. For me, Olivier gives probably the greatest Heathcliff performance every put on film, and even though Merle Oberon doesn't really match him there, she's good enough. And it doesn't hurt that you had one of the greatest film artists of the 20th Century (Wyler) at the heart of the film's vision and execution. What balls to just film the first half and not even contemplate the rest of the story. The technicals in that version are fantastic as well.
The only other version for me that's worth seriously diving into is the version awhile back with Tom Hardy; he's great, just like he always is. The film is not nearly as great as the Wyler, and Olivier towers over every other performance, but Hardy and Fiennes both knew what they were doing.
Well, like so much classic stuff, Wuthering Heights has been a big part of my cultural life. I've had a certain dread spreading over me regarding this film; I guess at the end of the day it's the Salt Burn effect; that one really put me off in a major way. And if this is more of that....no. So please don't be LOL.
