So much promise, but squandered in quest for sensationalism
The only saving grace of this movie was Tom Hardy as Heathcliff. He truly captured the Heathcliff of Bronte's novel--not some sort of rehashed Mills and Boon archetype. Hardy could express so much emotion just with his eyes and the tone of his voice. He did not have to resort to the exaggerated declamatory style of the 1930's. I only wish that he could have been given more of Bronte's original prose to speak.However to be fair, the other two good things that i have to credit the show with, is firstly;
a) the beautiful cinematography and the moody atmosphere that echoes Bronte's text. The gardens and the moors were delightful to take in;
and b) the chemistry between the doomed Cathy and Heathcliff. It was done with real passion and sincerity--it did not seemed forced or trite. Their love was infused with just the right amount of passion, selfishness, violence and obsession, which was electrifying to see on screen.
But unfortunately, the positives are outweighed by some serious flaws:
SPOILERS mentioned BELOW--read at your own risk
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Why on earth did the scriptwriters have to change the ending by having Heathcliff blow his brains out? Not to mention having Cathy and him making out on the moors just after he gets whipped by Hindley. I get the symbolism of course: the blood on his back as he's making love to Cathy is supposed to represent the violence and extreme passion that exists between the couple--but really, do we have to be subjected to a blatant rewriting in order to sex it up for modern tastes?
The other thing that cheesed me off was the fact that the writers cut short Cathy's dying scene and left out some of the most beautiful lines in the book, yet they spent a long time on a gravely self righteous Linton disowning his sister. Cathy's dying scene is one of my favourite scenes and it comes and goes like a whisper on the show! Lastly, the finale with Cathy and Heathcliff looking out from behind the window--what is that? Their spirits are not to be trapped inside a house, but instead they are supposed to be free upon the moors--in the book, Lockwood swears he sees a ghostly apparition on the moors.
Ultimately, this is a production that has so much promise with the powerful resonance of Bronte's words, the calibre of actors on it, scenery and music, but squanders it on cheap re- writes in order to 'sex it up', which is a real shame.
score 5/10
cleopatra07 6 March 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2034663/14555
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