Parents' Guide to

Wuthering Heights (2012)

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Contemplative adaptation focuses on teen passion and angst.

Movie NR 2012 129 minutes
Wuthering Heights (2012) Poster Image

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age 13+

Based on 1 parent review

goodluckkitty
goodluckkitty Adult
March 25, 2013
age 13+

Cold, cruel, and beautiful

Beautiful film adaptation. It crawls under the skin like the biting north wind in the forefront of the story. The landscape and characters are both cruel and natural, and capture the essence of Bronte's story. Those looking for a very literal summary of the epic work should look elsewhere. Those who haven't read the book and discussed it first should also look elsewhere. The movie would probably be "R" if rated, due to the aforementioned language. I recommend the movie for intelligent and thoughtful teens 13 and up, although the movie may result in some angsty existential funk for a few days.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
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What's the Story?

English filmmaker Andrea Arnold's take on WUTHERING HEIGHTS concentrates on the first part of the story, when young Catherine (Shannon Beer) and Heathcliff (Solomon Glave) become inseparable, spending all their time together on the moors. On a 19th-century Yorkshire estate, Mr. Earnshaw (Paul Hilton) brings orphan Heathcliff home from Liverpool. Although Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff as his own, older son Hindley (Lee Shaw) hates him, and daughter Catherine grows far fonder than a sister should be. After Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley returns as lord of the estate, but he badly mistreats Heathcliff. Meanwhile, Cathy's run-in with a hound leads to a convalescence with rich neighbors, the Lintons, that appears to transform her into a proper young woman with no more interest in Heathcliff. Broken hearted, he runs away, only to show up three years later with his own fortune and agenda to win her back -- or at least exact revenge.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (1):

There's an ethereal, contemplative quality to the film, which focuses so much of its time on the innocent -- and then feverish -- adolescent connection between Cathy and Heathcliff. There's a gentleness and a beauty to the way the protagonists interact with their land -- even the mud that covers them after they've wrestled on the ground is complicit in their blooming love. Kaya Scodelario and James Howson are excellent as the slightly older but obviously still in love Cathy and Heathcliff. By cutting out the latter portion of the story, the movie doesn't take the more sinister turns but still alludes to the fact that Wuthering Heights shall always be haunted by the doomed lovers.

Arnold caused a minor stir when she decided to cast black actors as Heathcliff in her youth-focused adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic novel. But since the Heathcliff of canon is constantly referred to as "dark" and "Gypsy," there's no reason the actor couldn't be black instead of just a dark-haired white actor. The young Heathcliff and Cathy, Glave and Beer, are the film's real scene-stealers. Without much dialogue, their time spent walking and running and playing around the beautiful moors makes it very obvious how close the not-really-related teens become -- and why they would grow to be undeniably obsessed with each other. In one of the movie's most intimate scenes, Cathy gently, quietly kisses Heathcliff's many wounds from a flogging that her angry brother ordered.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why this literary romance is so revered -- particularly among teen readers/moviegoers. How do Cathy and Heathcliff compare to other doomed lovers?

  • What forces keep Cathy and Heathcliff apart? What choices do each of them make that led to their separation?

  • Those familiar with the novel: How does the movie change your perspective of Heathcliff by leaving out the part of the book where he enacts his intricate form of revenge on Edgar and Hindley?

Movie Details

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