Bored by all the sex and violins': readers on the Wuthering Heights film

"We agreed that the visuals were often delightfully shocking. We talked about the contrasts between the lavish costumes and the moor landscape, which we thought Fennell got right. We talked about the Charlie XCX music and how well it evoked the landscape and the spirit of the book. We were entertained by the sex scenes and agreed Bronte would have written some if she had written in a different time but Fennell failed to develop the emotional longing and connection."

"We lamented that Fennell turned Nellie (our beloved unreliable narrator) into a conniving villain, and the film seemed to miss the supernatural elements of the book if Fennell wanted to shock us, she could have shown that scene in which Heathcliff digs up Cathy's body! While we appreciated that Fennell conflated the characters of Heathcliff and Hareton to make him more sympathetic, we thought she forgot what she was doing when she swung into his awfulness no consistency."

"As English is not my mother language, I struggled with the interventions by Joseph, as Bronte transliterated his speech. I had to read it aloud to understand what he was saying (and I live in Yorkshire!) The movie was marketed as the biggest love story, but Emily's story was more about obsession and vengeance. I was pleasantly surprised by the film. I don't think that any of the book characters are likable, and Fennell kept that essence."

A group of six English teachers aged 30 to 54 saw the film on Friday. They praised the visuals as delightfully shocking and admired the contrast between lavish costumes and the moor landscape. The Charlie XCX score was said to evoke landscape and period spirit. The sex scenes entertained the group, but the filmmakers failed to develop sustained emotional longing and connection. Nellie was recast as a conniving villain and supernatural elements were largely omitted, with some viewers wishing for more shocking gothic moments. Conflation of Heathcliff and Hareton sometimes made him more sympathetic but lacked consistency. Combining Earnshaw and Hindley was praised as sensible. One viewer reported difficulty with dialectal narration and affirmed that characters remained unlikable while obsession and vengeance drove the story.

Read at www.theguardian.com