It looks like WB is getting ahead of the slow-rolling drama unfolding about the “Wuthering Heights” trailer. The quotes matter because they’re more or less saying that this isn’t the Wuthering Heights you were expecting. It’s more like the soft core porn version of it. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but kind of that extreme.
I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt — I guess. I think it could draw a crowd for people to see just what weirdness lies beneath. But when I saw the trailer, my first thought was Why can’t Hollywood just make normal movies? Why does everything have to be so extra? They seem to think that teenage girls are their most profitable demographic — I have no idea why. However, this will likely appeal to teenage girls and older women, perhaps.
Unfortunately, it clashes with the image we all have in our minds of the movie with Merle Oberon and Lawrence Olivier, and other versions. What makes it so good is the swoony, unforgettable romance of it, a thing that appears to have been replaced by raging sexuality.
To be subversive now isn’t to be weird. It’s to be normal. Conventional. Romantic. Buttoned up. That’s what makes this a great story. I somehow doubt this song would be the same…
Okay, so the video is a bit dated. Either way, swoony romance is the way to tell this story. But I don’t want to criticize a teaser. That seems premature. I was not a fan of Saltburn — weird for the sake of being weird — but I did like Promising Young Woman.
The top comments on the video tell the tale:
Turns out, there was already drama:
Why tease it this early? Who knows. Maybe to get the scandal and controversy out of the way. Maybe to drive viral attention to it. Not sure. The takes range from Margot Robbie is too old to play Cathey who dies at the age of 19 in the book, or that Heathcliff is not white in the book, or that it’s overt sexuality when it should not be.
I think stirring things up like this will bring people out to the movies out of curiosity alone. And besides, who doesn’t love a good bodice-ripper — even if it is disguised as “Wuthering Heights.”
