When he dies, the film does too, except for the obligatory final suggestion of the two lovers reunited in death. The most interesting scenes then are of Heathcliff being haunted by his dead lover. We haven't been set up to really care about what happens with Heathcliff and Cathy's kids. Unfortunately the latter part kind of drags. If you cut off the beginning and the end, you may come up with the most straightforward and engaging telling of the Wuthering Heights story ever. Special mention has to go to Andrew Lincoln (known since Wuthering Heights for his very different leading role as the American sheriff in nine seasons of The Walking Dead) in the thankless role of the gentlemanly Edgar who marries Catherine, walking a fine line between nice guy and unwitting prig. The support cast is also uniformly spot on. We can accept them each alternately enticing and frustrating the other to distraction-and presumably to death. The acting is universally excellent, especially from Tom Hardy as a little more focused and psychotic Heathcliff than we're used to in movies and Charlotte Riley as an acutely protrayed Catherine. It's a step-by-step presentation of the development of the characters. Despite a little necessary compression, needed in any adaptation, almost all the plot points from the novel are laid out in sensible fashion. Then the film is everything a modern audience could want. Heathcliff and Catherine meet on the moors after her marriage to Edgar in the 2009 film. It's a relief when the show moves into flashback mode and starts telling the story of Heathcliff and his Cathy from the beginning, leading up to that juncture and beyond. It's supposed to tease the audience into wondering what led to this situation, but instead it probably just confuses them. For reasons the audience cannot guess at yet, the seemingly upright Edgar Linton delivers his late sister's son into the hands of conniving Healthcliff.
Instead of starting with nested narrators recounting the convoluted tale from the present day, the series open with events from about three quarters of the way through the novel, long after Catherine's death but before Heathcliff's, when we're well into the story of the next generation. The trade-off is it changes how the story is told. Like the 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the 2009 television production makes an effort to portray the effects of the Heathcliff-Catherine romance or tragedy falling upon the next generation.Īs a miniseries spread over two parts, it can afford nearly two and a half hours to tell the larger story. Wuthering Heights (2009): Two-part television series director Coky Giedroyc writer Peter Bowker featuring Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Andrew Lincoln, Burn Gorman, Sarah Lancashire Wuthering Heightsġ939, 1992, 2009 Scaling the heights step by step Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy in 2009 miniseries as Catherine and Heathcliffe in happier days.