Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

IncaWelCar In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

TheLittleSongbird Wuthering Heights is one of the literary masterpieces with complex characters(especially Heathcliff, a character that makes Mr Rochester, another tormented character, seem tame in comparison) and a truly dark, moving story that is full to the brim with atmosphere. Like the work of Charles Dickens and George Eliot as examples Wuthering Heights is one of the most difficult books to adapt and is almost unfilmable as well. Every adaptation of Wuthering Heights is worth the look though some work better than others. This was a fine version of Wuthering Heights, along with the Laurence Olivier film it is the best adaptation. True it could have done with a longer length especially for a book as lengthy and complex as Wuthering Heights, and the sections with the youngsters seemed on the rushed side(they also age a bit too quickly). It is however one of- perhaps THE- most faithful adaptation, there are omissions of course as you'd expect from a film compressed into a shorter running time but in detail and spirit with all the major details and characters intact it is to the extent that if she were alive Emily Bronte herself would recognise it. The adaptation is even better on its own, the locations are breath-taking and remarkably vivid in a way where you can literally smell and feel the atmosphere being conveyed. The photography is not too flashy or studio-bound, it has a sense of freedom but allows the story to resonate. While the costumes are richly evocative, if you had a time machine and had travelled to this period it is very likely to be as rendered here. The music score is hauntingly beautiful and melancholic, particularly at the end and the ending here is poignant beyond words (none of the other adaptations of the book have done it as emotionally as here). The writing is very thoughtfully adapted with a great deal of intimacy and very true to Bronte's prose, and the story is still the dark, brooding and passionate tale of the book with as said already the major scenes all here and with the impact they should. The direction is strong throughout as is the acting. Not all the actors are age-appropriate but for me the performances themselves are what matter more and the adaptation delivers on that front. Robert Cavannah is a Heathcliff that is brutish and brooding yet tormented and pained, rightfully allowing us to be terrified of Heathcliff and later go on to pity him too. Orla Brady is a spirited and feisty Cathy, also very affecting, her delirium scene is beautifully played and genuinely disturbing. Matthew McFadyen's Hareton is very charming, while Crispin Bonham-Carter's Edgar is very well-read and humane in a role that can easily be weak and the Hindley of Ian Shaw is appropriately tragic, a tormenter at first but later he is almost(if not quite to that extent) as pained as Heathcliff. Polly Hemmingway and Tom Georgeson are equally engaging. Overall, one of the better Wuthering Heights adaptations and recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

marybon As someone who has created a website on Wuthering Heights so had to read and re-read it many times, paragraph by paragraph, I was very impressed by this version (ITV has not a great reputation for historical drama in the UK).The house itself looked like a farmhouse rather than a mansion, the minor details such as hair colour were generally accurate, the acting was excellent. Somehow Orla Brady didn't feel right to me as Catherine (although she's a fine actress) but Sarah Smart was perfect as the younger Cathy.Being two hours rather than a movie's 90 minutes allowed more of the novel to be used and I was constantly thinking "Yes, I remember that from the book". Until Andrew Davies produces the definitive 'Wuthering Heights' as he did for 'Pride and Prejudice', this is probably the best around.

morgana-31 I came across this on DVD last weekend. I had been looking for the mini-series I had seen on TV a good 25 years or so earlier and mistook this one for it. (I had no idea who was in the mini-series; and bad eyesight prevented me from reading the small print on the box.) Well I had no regrets. As a hater of the half told stories of a couple of previous versions I had seen, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll agree with everyone else that Cathy and Heathcliff aged faster than in the book and that Nelly Dean should have been younger, but that did not detract from the story. And Heathcliff was depicted as a rogue, not a romantic hero; and Cathy was a twit. I felt no sympathy for her because she made her choice and got what she deserved. I do wish they had done more with Cathy 2 and Linton though. Their rather grating personalities were all but lost in this version. But at least they were IN this version. I had to watch it on a portable mini DVD player because my big telly is in for repairs, but this will be the first thing I watch when I get it back.

bob_yarwood Sarah Smart is just about the best Cathy ever, and played the same part in a modernised version of the story entitled "Sparkhouse" on BBC1 Sept 8th 2002. She looks right, sounds right, and has the right temperament for the part - wilful, wayward and fiery. She has the look of Sarah Miles - and could be her daughter!