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Wuthering Heights (1992)
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by Paramount
Sales Rank: 9753
Price: $9.95
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Peter Kosminsky's 1992 adaptation of Emily Brontë's <I>Wuthering Heights</I> goes to the extreme of casting Sinéad O'Connor in a brief bit as Brontë herself, but the film still doesn't approach the accomplishment of William Wyler's classic 1939 production (with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon) or subsequent versions by Luis Buñuel and Robert Fuest. That doesn't make it unwatchable, however: it still offers <I>The English Patient</I> costars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy. Binoche is a bit washed-out, but Fiennes makes a strong impression as the rejected laborer who makes his fortune and exacts a vengeance. Unlike Wyler's film, this one covers all the chapters of Brontë's book, but it is sodden with misery and lacks all grace. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews
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.
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Wuthering Heights (1992)
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