Wuthering Heights

Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights goes to the extreme of casting Sinead O’Connor in a brief bit as Bronte herself, but the film still doesn’t approach the accomplishment of William Wyler’s classic 1939 production (with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon) or subsequent versions by Luis Bunuel and Robert Fuest. That doesn’t make it unwatchable, however: it still offers The English Patient costars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy. Binoche is a bit washed-out, but Fiennes makes a strong impression as the rejected labourer who makes his fortune and exacts a vengeance. Unlike Wyler’s film, this one covers all the chapters of Bronte’s book, but it is sodden with misery and lacks all grace.