It's one of the tragedies of English literature that Emily Brontë produced only one novel before her untimely death at age 30. But what a novel, though! Wuthering Heights is a fantastic tale of love, hate, revenge, and devotion that survives even death. This 1992 film adaptation of Brontë's story does full justice to the novel, bringing it to the screen with all the dark passion and Gothic thrills of the original.

Wuthering Heights is a love story, but a more tumultuous and troubled one is hard to imagine. The lives of the Earnshaw family, the owners of Wuthering Heights, are changed forever when their father brings home a gypsy waif whom he names Heathcliff. Young Cathy Earnshaw finds in Heathcliff a far more kindred soul than her more conventional family, and an enduring bond is formed between the two young people... a bond that will end up linking Heathcliff, the Earnshaws, and the neighboring Lintons through two generations.

The novel could easily have been drawn out to a four-hour miniseries, but the choice to make it into a film that clocks in at under two hours was a very wise one: it ends up as a very intense and concentrated story. Wuthering Heights is extremely well paced; there's always some new development in the story, and there's never a scene that's drawn out too long. An essential element in the fast pace is that the cast of characters is presented extremely well; they're all introduced smoothly, and it's always clear which characters are important and who they are (a critical part of any story, particularly of a multi-generational one). The result is a film that relentlessly draws you in and pulls you along for the ride.

Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Heathcliff is one of the strongest parts of the film. Heathcliff is an extremely complex character: capable of both great passion and great malice, he's at once the hero, the villain, and the victim of the story. Fiennes (aided by an excellent script, of course) makes Heathcliff into a fully three-dimensional, believable, and even sympathetic figure. In some ways he's monstrous, but we also see clearly that he's also the product of his environment, shaped by the people whose family he enters.

The weakest link in an otherwise quite successful cast is Juliette Binoche, in dual roles as Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton; she does an adequate job as these characters, but she doesn't match the excellence of her co-star Fiennes as Heathcliff. The only other fault I'd find with the film is that it switches too quickly from the younger actors playing Heathcliff and Cathy to the adult actors Fiennes and Binoche; there are several early scenes in which the actors are clearly too old for the characters that they're playing. Fortunately, the story soon moves on in time, and the discrepancy disappears.

Interestingly, the filmmakers chose to use a frame for the story, with author Emily Brontë appearing as a character and telling us how she imagined the story of Wuthering Heights while exploring a ruined house on the moor. Though unexpected, it actually works out well; the character of Brontë takes on some of the "narrator" duties that in the novel are assigned to the character of Lockwood (the tenant who stumbles into Wuthering Heights at the beginning of the film). It's a change that probably makes the story work more smoothly in film format.

Filmed on location in Yorkshire, Brontë's home and the setting for her novel, Wuthering Heights skillfully uses the stark beauty of the landscape to underscore the harsh realities of passion, rivalry, and betrayal in the story. Without being ostentatiously a "period" piece, Wuthering Heights evokes a time and place that's halfway between the real Yorkshire moors of the 19th century and the Gothic gloom of Brontë's imagination.

The DVD

Video

Wuthering Heights appears in an anamorphic widescreen transfer at its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. While the transfer isn't perfect, it offers an attractive image that's above average in overall image quality. Colors are handled extremely well: the subdued palette of the harsh moors, the grays of Wuthering Heights, and the delicate pastels of the Grange are all captured perfectly. This very Gothic piece also uses a great deal of light and shadow for effect, and the contrast is up to the task even in challenging circumstances. On the down side, the image is very soft and grain is often visible; scattered flaws also appear in the print.

Audio

Wuthering Heights' Dolby 5.1 soundtrack handles the mostly dialogue-driven film quite well. The overall track is clean, the actors' voices are clear and natural-sounding, and the musical score is nicely interwoven with the scenes, supporting but not overwhelming the action. A Dolby 2.0 track is also included.

Extras

There are no special features on this DVD.

Final thoughts

I'm always particularly pleased when I find a really successful film adaptation of a novel that I like. Wuthering Heights works equally well whether you've read Emily Brontë's novel half a dozen times or whether you're approaching the story for the very first time: it's a haunting, evocative story that draws you into its world of intense passions and keeps you completely involved for every minute of the film. Highly recommended.