“Wuthering Heights” First Reactions: Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi Have Incandescent Chemistry in Emerald Fennell’s Scorcher

Raise your hand if you thought that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi just might have some chemistry in writer/director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s iconic novel “Wuthering Heights”? Yeah, us too. And so, too, the members of the press who caught the advanced screening ahead of the film’s February 13 release. The first reactions to Fennell’s latest film are pouring in online, and they’re centered on Robbie and Elordi’s abundant chemistry and the bold choices that Fennell, her cast, and crew made in adapting Brontë’s eternal tale of lust and madness set on the Yorkshire moors.

Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangacy also praised the film on X. She called Wuthering Heights a “scorching hot twisted tale” and lauded the chemistry between stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as “a whole other level of HOT!”

Writer Courtney Howard shares on X that the film “…expertly captures the breathtaking ache & essence of desire.”

Robbie stars as Catherine Earnshaw, who embarks on a massively intense, deeply destructive relationship with Elordi’s Heathcliff. The film explores the forbidden passion between the two and the dark, sweltering descent into lust and madness they take together. Joining Robbie and Elordi in the cast are Oscar nominee Hong Chau as Nelly (the chief narrator of Brontë’s novel), Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton, Alison Oliver as Isabella Linton, Edgar’s sister and Heathcliff’s wife, BAFTA winner Martin Clunes as Mr. Earnshaw, the man who brought the orphan Heathcliff to live at Wuthering Heights, and Ewan Mitchell as Joseph, the fanatically religious servant at Wuthering Heights.

Fennell worked again with longtime collaborators, including her go-to cinematographer, the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning Linus Sandgren; the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated production designer Suzie Davies; editor Victoria Boydell; casting director Kharmel Cochrane; and composer Anthony Willis. The costumes come from the heralded Jacqueline Durran. Original songs by Charli XCX.

Let’s take a quick look at what some of the critics are saying:

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) JACOB ELORDI as Heathcliff and Actor, Producer MARGOT ROBBIE as Catherine Earnshaw in “Wuthering Heights,” a Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

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