The 2009 film adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights stars Tom Hardy as Heathcliff and Charlotte Riley as Catherine Earnshaw. The film follows the complex and obsessive love story between Heathcliff and Catherine and how it leads to revenge and destruction. Costuming plays an important role in portraying the characters' changes in status and attitudes over time. The settings of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange define the characters and have significant effects on their moods, with Wuthering Heights portrayed as dark, gloomy, and deteriorating while Thrushcross Grange is bright and regal. While the film effectively brought the novel's characters to life, some changes from the source material caused questions

1. Movie Review on Wuther-ing
Heights
Wuthering Heights
Directed By Coky Giedroyc
United Kingdom, 2009, 180 Minutes.
Reviewed By Daineda Rodney
Student, St. Hugh’s High School, Kingston, JA.

2. The 2009 two (2) part movie adaption by PBS Masterpiece of the novel Wuthering
Heights written by Emily Bronte brings to life the gothic novel that caused controversy in the
1800s as it was written by not only a woman but a clergyman’s daughter. The film was screen
written by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Gierdryc and starred Tom Hardy, new comer
Charlotte Riley, Andrew Linton, Rosalind Halstead, Burn Gorman and Sarah Lancashire in the
roles of Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, Isabella Linton, Hindley Earnshaw and
Nelly Dean respectively.
The movie set in the Victorian Era shows how powerful love can lead to revenge and the
destruction of those caught in the midst of it all. Just as in the novel, the movie tells the story of
Heathcliff, a gypsy boy, brought home by Mr. Earnshaw, the father of Catherine and Hindley. He
takes in Heathcliff and basically “adopts” him much to his wife’s objection. However as years
progressed, Catherine and Heathcliff became best friends then eventually lovers. Things later
take a turn for the worse. Soon after Mr. Earnshaw died and Hindley returned home to take his
position as master of the house, Hindley, in an act of exacting revenge on Heathcliff for “steal-ing”
his father’s love, discontinued Heathcliff’s formal education and made him work as one of
the servants. To add fuel to the flames, he forbade Catherine and Heathcliff to see each other. As
the film progress features from the romance elements such as rival lovers is seen. This is intro-duced
through the character of Edgar Linton who is deemed a much better suitor for Cathy as he
is of certain stratum. This issue created a tension not only between Heathcliff and Edgar but also
between Heathcliff and Cathy. The tension later transformed into a rift when Cathy agreed to
marry Edgar because of what she could obtain, which was money and status instead of true love.
Realizing that he was not as important to Cathy as he thought, Heathcliff left Wuthering Heights
and did not return until three years (3) later.
Upon his return after his three year absence, one takes notice that there is a change in
him. His change in dress and demure sparks much question: Does he still love her? How much
did Cathy’s betrayal affect him? What is going to happen now that he has returned in a much bet-ter
place in society moneywise than he was in before? As one watches the film to the end these
questions and the unasked ones are answered and multiple emotions come into play from both
the audience and the characters involved in Wuthering Heights.

3. Costuming plays a very important role in creating and portraying characters. In Wuther-ing
Heights, a significant change in costuming is seen by both Heathcliff and Catherine. The
change is seen in both the style of their dress and the colour. The first significance seen with cos-tuming
is the difference in dress by the residents of Thrushcross Grange and of Wuthering
Heights. The residents of Wuthering Heights are seen wearing dark dreary clothing. This seems
appropriate as they are frequently in a foul temper and dreary mood. Talk about the clothes mak-ing
the people. As time progressed over the course of the movie a change in costuming is shown
by the two major characters.
The first change is shown at Cathy’s wedding. Cathy, who constantly sported a dress ei-ther
of black or grey, is now decked out in an elegant white possibly designer wedding dress.
The change in her dress became the first representation of her change in status. The change in
Cathy’s costume not only represented the change in her status but it also brought about a change
in her attitude. The immature, foul-tempered and wild Cathy was now a demure lady. Atleast
that was before Heathcliff’s returned and whenever she visits Wuthering Heights. Her dress re-flects
the setting she is in.
The most drastic and memorable change that will capture the audience’s eyes is seen
through Tom hardy’s character Heathcliff. Heathcliff in the movie did not only undergo an atti-tude
change but his costuming also underwent a ‘from rags to riches’ alteration to compliment
his new attitude. Before his three (3) year ‘sabbatical’, Heathcliff is seen dressed in filthy, torn
rags as he had to suffer because of Hindley’s jealousy. Upon his return, the audience is given
knowledge of the fact that Heathcliff’s long sabbatical was not futile but whatever he did during
his absence he was able to acquire some level of wealth. The change in his costume demonstrates
the fact that Heathcliff through his wealth as raised in status as his manner of dress now consist-ed
of what would be considered 19th century Louis Vuitton.
Unlike most movies which have multiple focus points with little or no significance.
Wuthering Heights is not so, even though there are multiple scenes they are not as significant as
that of Wuthering Heights itself and Thrushcross Grange. These two major settings create a con-siderable
amount of importance as they not only create a sense of stability in the movie but they
also define the character that resides on these two estates.

4. They say first impressions count. The Wuthering Heights estate at first impression is not
pleasant. At first impression it gives off a medieval look and feel with its dark, gloomy and lim-ited
windows features. Also in terms of physical features, Wuthering Heights gives off the look
of a place lacking in maintenance, it looks deteriorated and completely the worse for wear and
the stipulation gets worse with each change of ownership first from Mr Earnshaw to Hindley
then to Heathcliff. The quality of Wuthering Heights portrays the Earnshaw as persons of good
status yet lacking in the financial sector of life.
The house has tremendous effect that anyone who lives at Wuthering Heights. They be-come
like the house, deprived of life, overcome with misery, gloom and death. They are foul-tempered
as shown constantly by Heathcliff, Hindley after the death of his wife and with the par-tial
introduction of Joseph. The attitude was shown also by Cathy until she marries Edgar. to-wards
the end of the movie, more of Wuthering Heights is seen, more misery is seen exhibited as
more character are caught in its claws. One character that got caught in Wuthering Heights’
claws was Isabella Linton. Isabella, who was a demure, vivacious young lady, was now severely
miserable even to the point where she looks close to a hag. This was all because she was trapped
in a home with a paranoid drunk and a husband that doesn’t love her and is in medical terms on
the brink of a psychotic meltdown as he was consumed by his wish for revenge. All who set foot
on Wuthering Heights become equivalent to zombies; they are living but not existing.
Thrushcross Grange, on the other hand, was of a whole new world. Thrushcross Grange
was filled with colour and windows that allowed light to enter the house. The characters who re-side
in Thrushcross Grange when seen are of good humour. The first peek taken of the Linton’s
and Thrushcross Grange is when teenage Heathcliff and Cathy in their mischievous manner de-cided
to sneak over in the middle of the night to spy and make fun of the Lintons who they did
not like because they were thought of as high-class. Through their eyes the audience is given a
look inside the Lintons home which looked like it belonged to persons of very high status or
even royalty with its silk curtains and regal looking furniture. The characters at Thrushcross
Grange were seen laughing, dancing and having a good time together as a family. Something that
does not happen at Wuthering Height as the characters there is constantly quarrelling with each
other or Heathcliff and Cathy. In the end it can be deduced that Thrushcross Grange was an ex-

5. treme difference in comparison to Wuthering Heights in colour, size and the effect it has on the
characters who reside in them.
As in any film, Wuthering Heights has its potency and its flaws. Everyone knows that
when writing a script based on a novel certain aspects of the novel are looked for in the movie. If
critical changes are made they could change the storyline all together. Screenwriter Peter Bowk-er,
like his other predecessors though he did a great job with the writing, an audience member
who paid close attention while reading the novel will have serious questions when watching the
movie. Not to dwell on the negative side of things there were also some parts that can be deemed
as impressive.
Starting with the good so that it can soften the blow of the bad, the audience can find sev-eral
strengths in the film that is deemed important in the novel. For any movie to be a success as
well as captivating for its intended audience, the actors have to do the job that the writer cannot.
Make the characters come alive. The cast of Wuthering Heights did a splendid job in resurrecting
the characters of the novel and making them relatable to modern audience. Though Heathcliff
was already seen to be a tyrant, Tom Hardy’s portrayal could easily make one rethink their opin-ion
of him. Questions are asked such as, was he really justified in his actions? Charlotte Riley’s
portrayal of Cathy would cause members of the viewing audience to possibly have violent
thoughts towards her character, thus exemplifying how excellent a job she did in playing Cathy.
Even Burn Gorman’s Hindley was expressed as superb by The Telegraph television and radio
critic John Preston. Preston states that, “Gorman portrayal Hindley was a man so curdled that
even his hair appeared to be dripping with sourness.”
The writer with the help of the actors were able to not only able to bring alive some fic-tional
characters but they were able to address social issues faced in that time. One issue that was
addressed was the stereotyping and devaluing of human being based on their race. Heathcliff was
a victim of this from the day he stepped into the Earnshaw’s house till the day he bought it and
eventually died in it.
In the Elizabethan era, gypsies were seen as unclean and they were at the very bottom of
the social pyramid that is assuming they were even on it in the first place. The very fact that Mr
Earnshaw had associated himself with a gypsy would and probably did cause some sort of out-

6. rage in the community and his status to fall lower. However, though Heathcliff was taken in and
treated like an Earnshaw even though he was never officially adopted, the matter of his race be-ing
unaccepted and degrading did not matter even when others would speak down on him in his
presence and mistake him as illiterate until Cathy rejected him and married Edgar instead be-cause
he could give her something that Heathcliff could never give her, status and wealth. The
stereotyping of Heathcliff unfortunately continued even after he left for three years and returned
with a questionable amount of wealth. Though he had ‘made something of himself’ to the point
where he could scheme and buy Hindley out of Wuthering Heights showed how much power he
had acquired but in the eyes of persons like Edgar Linton he was still the lowly gypsy boy serv-ant
with no purpose in life.
The portraying of the obsessive relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff was both fun-ny
and a pain to watch. The chemistry and the level of talent the two actors had caused them to
evoke several emotions from viewers. Emotions from pity when Heathcliff insulted by stating,
“What's that? There's a look in your eyes. My God, I think it's guilt. You've been with him,
haven't you? You've laid with Edgar, haven't you? ...As if your pretend marriage matters to me?
How am I to look at you? How am I to touch you now that his milky feeble hands have held you
as I'm holding you now, you disgust me” to sadness when Heathcliff grieved the death of Cathy.
On the downside of things, there were a few disappointments in the movie. Like the other
poorly displayed versions of Wuthering Heights, the physical feature of Heathcliff is questiona-ble
as it varies from the novel. In the novel Heathcliff is described as “a dark-skinned gypsy... an
erect and handsome figure”, however everybody can see that Tom Hardy though he is ‘an erect
and handsome figure’ he was lacking in the dark-skinned department. This huge change creates a
cause for many questions to be asked. Questions like, Could they not find a good-looking dark-skinned
guy to play Heathcliff? Did they in some twisted way purposely made the character be
played by a white guy while the dark would represent the new version of Heathcliff when he is
consumed by revenge and hatred for all?
Adding to the list of dislikes in the movie, there was the issue of the introduction of a
character that was there for only a few scenes. So the character pops in and pops out, the audi-ence
still not knowing who he is and what really was his purpose apart from being Heathcliff’s
sidekick and messenger? Introduction of characters into the film not mentioned in the novel

7. caused a sense of confusion and distraction for members of the viewing audience as they are now
filled with curiosity which is easily resulted in missing important or more interesting happenings.
There was also the addition of scenes not mentioned in the novel. The implementing of the sexu-al
scenes in the movie raised a question like were Heathcliff and Cathy that rebellious and so ‘in
love’ with each other that they would defile each other in a way that there is no turning the deed
around once it is done?
In the end, just like any other film, Wuthering Heights had its ups and downs that can be
associated with a movie, but hey the characters were not perfect so why should the movie also
be. The actors did a marvellous in bringing alive the characters in the novel to the movie. The set
and costume designers should also be praised for the work they did on both the setting of the
movie and the characters costume. Without their expertise, the movie would probably be a big
disappointment, as there would be a whole lot of negative and minimal if any positive reaction to
the movie. Their work helped to bring out the audience to see the characters the actors played
and how much their surroundings contributed to their attitude.