Simply Perfect

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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

There is a lot wrong with this version of the classic tale. First and foremost the compressing of the story into two hours, the original and best version with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon only told a fraction of the book and it was of equal length, makes everything feel rushed and motivations fuzzy. Almost as damaging is the miscasting of Robert Cavanah in the lead. Heathcliff is a complex, difficult, mostly unlikable character which requires an actor of great personal magnetism to bridge that gap for the audience, Cavanah is not that guy. He just seems cruel, insane and totally unsympathetic. Orla Brady is a bland Cathy making Heathcliffs mad devotion all the more puzzling. Another sore spot, no one ages! Once the main characters reach maturity their looks never change even though decades pass. The one bright spot is Matthew MacFayden whose performance is controlled and centered unfortunately his part is small and comes late in the proceedings so he can do little to rescue this woeful effort. Watch the 1939 version instead.

Being an avid Bronte fan, especially Emily, I have seen every single adaptation of their novels. While most screen adaptations prove to be rather disgraceful, there are some "gems" which, though not equaling the original source, turn out to be masterpieces in their own right. Such is the case with this wonderful TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights. It follows as closely to the book as possible, and takes great pains to bring the characters and their world to life, and succeeds with flying colours. Robert Cavannah and Orla Brady are near perfect in their portrayal of the two star-crossed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, and David Skynner, the director, does his best to emulate the chaotic atmosphere in which their love blossoms in the novel. But the most enjoyable part of the movie - and indeed of the novel - is the allusion to the post-Heathcliff Wuthering Heights epitomised by the union of Hareton and Catherine Linton.This is a dark, dreary, passionate and compelling adaptation - probably the most stirring, and definitely the most faithful to the original - for it shows why we love and continue to love Emily Jane Bronte's masterpiece! I most strenuously recommend it to every Bronte fan - Victorian world doesn't get bleaker than this!

I completely agree with the comments posted by the reviewer with the cryptic name of hpbfan8790 : this adaptation doesn't come close to the spirit of the book. I LOVE the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and just had to get a TV adaptation. I live in Spain, and these things are not easily available here, but as I happened to be in Gibraltar this past weekend I scoured the video stores in search of an adaptation of this timeless classic. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be very popular, though at last I found this version. I sat through the first half hour and could just not bear it any more! I don't expect an adaptation for the screen to be as detailed as the novel on which it is based - that would be impossible - but I have seen a few adaptations of classics that do manage to capture the essence of the book, and at least do not contradict it (see the excellent LWT '86 adaptation of A Little Princess - for further information please contact me ) but in this version so many things were happening that were just not true! Eg, Mrs Earnshaw was alive when the Master brought the boy from Liverpool. And it was so, so rushed. And, dear me, the ages! Cathy and Heathcliff at least twenty-two and playing like children on the moors! They were supposed to be children in the book, that first time they intruded the Grange and Cathy was bitten by the hound! The setting though was nice, but that's about all. I realize it's a difficult novel to bring to the screen, but someone PLEASE do recommend a more faithful (and lengthy) version.