smackwriter

have not watched it yet, but given everything i have seen and know about it, i highly doubt i will like it, even as a bizarro "what if i adapted wuthering heights wrong just to please myself" sort of thing that fennell is doing. my biggest pet peeve about this whole thing is not the aesthetic or the tone, because fine, she's draping it in this heightened, self-indulgent style. i don't agree, but okay.

what i can't get over is the casting. i simply can't take it seriously. there is no universe in which margot robbie is cathy to me, even emerald fennell-self-insert-cathy. it just doesn't work. not only does margot robbie look like a much older woman, but there was absolutely no effort made to evoke the rugged, untamed nature of cathy - she looks plump-lipped and perfectly made-up and like she's just stepped out of her monthly hyaluronic acid shot session. in the few clips of the film that i've seen, jacob elordi as heathcliff (and i'll get to him) is still talking to her as if she were that wild cathy who is soon going to be "civilized" by the lintons. when no, this is margot robbie looking glam and high cheek-boned and ready for the red carpet premiere. there's nothing there, not even a whiff of historicity, not even a sign of a person living under different times. not even the shape of a character, frankly. and it sucks because i like margot robbie. but she's just been left to flounder in this part just because emerald fennell sees herself in her.

and as for jacob elordi, while he's less miscast than margot robbie, he's operating under the same premises as robbie, which is to fit emerald's fantasy of heathcliff. and emerald's fantasy is a heathcliff who errr is not very white because he's aussie, i guess? and maybe in a certain light he looks italian? something. it's not a serious engagement with the novel. it's not even a serious engagement with her own desires, imo. she's not interrogating or delving into anything. she just thought jacob elordi was hot in her last film, saltburn. and she wanted to see a similar looking blonde make out with him. as many ppl have pointed out, she could've just gone for a new IP and called it a day. true, margot robbie and jacob elordi still wouldn't have had chemistry, but at least this whole thing would've been more honest and less obnoxious. oh, and of course she has gone with "blind" casting for the rest of the characters, so that we have a desi edgar linton and an asian nelly, but all meaningless and self-congratulatory because look, she doesn't think everyone should be white. it's just very aggravating. and i think that's exactly what she was hoping for. to cause a scene and stir shit up and make people want to see it out of spite, or curiosity. and i, for one, am disappointed, because i thought she was a smarter filmmaker than that. but as some folks have already pointed out in reviews, she keeps trying to give us this bdsm freak aesthetic, but at heart her vision is bland.

Vincent Price with Jimmy the Raven -