The 1847 English novel Wuthering Heights was recently adapted into a film that debuted Feb. 13. The movie starred Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, and was directed by award-winning director, Emerald Fennell. However, though it was a good romance movie, the book is a classic tragedy, therefore leaving me questioning why I would categorize this as just romance.

Now, needless to say, the film was very captivating and kept me hooked throughout the entire two hours and sixteen minutes. Robbie and Elordi both did a great job at playing their characters and understood the emotions they would need to portray throughout the movie.

The movie started out when they were kids and gradually had a storyline building up to when they were adults. I think giving slight context behind their story really made it more understandable and helped me grasp their bond more. Also, the actors who played the kids, Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper, did a great job in the time they had on screen. They did a great job at being so emotional while still conveying that childlike innocence.

I also really think the setting and location of the film added on so much to the overall essence of the movie. The set really conveyed the gothic, English feel that the novel could only describe and added so much to the mood. The isolation of Wuthering Heights was portrayed really well throughout the movie and actively showed the distance between Wuthering Heights and other civilizations.

Another thing that was really cool about the film was the original songs created by Charli XCX to play throughout the movie. At first I was skeptical on why they chose Charli XCX because she is known to be a modern pop artist. Since this movie was supposedly a tragic love story set in the 18th century, I wasn’t sure how an artist like her could accomplish something to fit the movie. She definitely exceeded my expectations with the soundtrack of the film. Each song fit with every scenario perfectly and she was able to capture the on-screen emotion and put it into a song. The soundtrack was one of my favorite things about the entire film. 

I will say, overall Wuthering Heights was a great movie. The acting, soundtrack and set were amazing and I was definitely interested in the storyline. Now, though it was overall super captivating, I don’t think the emotional delivery was exactly what the novel was trying to capture in its original release. I think all of the actors were very emotional and good for a romance movie, but just kind of missed out on the tragedy part. 

Before even going to see the movie, I interpreted it as a love story between a boy and a girl and in all honesty, that’s what the movie ended up being. The trailers, ads and the finished movie really captured the feeling of love, but I feel like they slightly missed out on capturing the true  tragedy and feeling of obsession that the novel portrays. Only at the very end of the movie did the sense of tragedy start to be prominent and the tragic ending felt almost rushed. 

Not only was the movie more of a love movie than a tragedy, it was also marketed as a romance movie. First of all, it was released Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. In the trailer it literally says “coming this Valentine’s Day,” and was also very romantic and did not present the movie as a tragedy at all.

In the end, I think there was definitely tragedy in the movie but it was way more focused on love. I really did like the movie overall though. I think the acting, emotions, setting and music was phenomenal but they definitely missed out on grasping the full tragedy and obsession from the novel.