'Wuthering Heights' film is first to cast black Heathcliff
A new film version of Emily Bront毛 classic 鈥�Wuthering Heights,鈥� which was released this past fall in the United Kingdom, will hit US theaters Oct. 2.
听鈥�Skins鈥� actress Kaya Scodelario stars as Catherine Earnshaw, while actor James Howson plays Heathcliff, the first time a black actor has played the brooding hero.
鈥淔or me, it was quite clear in the book that he was dark skinned,鈥� director Andrea Arnold told . 鈥淗e gets called a little Lascar, which would have been an Indian seaman, and Nelly says, 鈥榃ho knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen鈥欌�� I think his difference was certainly very important in my story and very important in the book.鈥�
The movie鈥檚 trailer is atmospheric, with many shots of the moors and only glimpses into the story. It shows the young actors who play Catherine and Heathcliff, Shannon Beer and Solomon Glave, playing; Glave being beaten; and Howson as Heathcliff returning to the area and meeting Catherine as an adult.
鈥淲uthering Heights鈥� has a 79 percent rating on , and many reviewers noted how different the movie was from a usual costume drama. Some approved of this deviation, while others did not. reviewer Mary Corliss called the adaptation 鈥渇aithful and bold鈥� and said that casting a black actor in the role of Heathcliff was the project鈥檚 main strength.
For some critics, however, the dynamics between the leading couple were a problem. 鈥淲hat I found more of a problem was the faint stiffness and self-consciousness of the acting and the crucial lack of chemistry between the adult Heathcliff and Cathy,鈥� reviewer Xan Brooks wrote. 鈥淲e need to believe in this love in order for Arnold's gloriously bruised and brooding vision to properly hit home and I never did, quite.鈥�
reviewer Robbie Collin said he 鈥渓oved it鈥� and that 鈥淎ndrea Arnold鈥檚 film certainly boasts the bonnets, romance, shots of the English countryside and 19th-century source material that are the form鈥檚 hallmarks; but it鈥檚 also strange, profane.鈥�
However, critic Chris Tookey said that Bront毛 wouldn鈥檛 have intended her protagonist Heathcliff to be black and that because this decision made the story about race, not class, the story isn鈥檛 what the author would have wanted.
鈥淎long with believability, period accuracy and faithfulness to the novel, Arnold sacrifices clarity. The performances are poor and opaque, so it鈥檚 hard to know what, or whether, anyone is thinking,鈥� he wrote.
