Blu-ray Review: Wuthering Heights (2011)

After Red Road (2006) and Fish Tank (2009), a pair of highly acclaimed gritty urban dramas, Andrea Arnold is one of the current champions of British independent cinema. For her third feature, she has taken a detour to what initially sounds like costume drama territory: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the classic story of a doomed romance on the Yorkshire Moors. Unsurprisingly, though, the result is a big departure from the typical confines of heritage cinema. With its sparse dialogue, naturalistic filming style and occasionally uncompromising brutality it's designed to shock those expecting another Pride & Prejudice (although those with any knowledge of the story should know its harshness well enough already).

The film begins with a farmer walking home across the windswept Moors with an adolescent black boy, a ship stowaway who he takes it upon himself to adopt. He names him Heathcliff. The rest of his family are mostly not keen on their new houseguest, except daughter Kathy who takes a shine to him. The first half of the film depicts the burgeoning love between the young couple, but it's far from a typical romance. Heathcliff, alienated at first by his lack of English, is increasingly badly treated by his new family, especially after the father dies and his horrible son becomes man of the house, instantly decreeing that Heathcliff moves into the cattle shed. Eventually, Heathcliff runs away; the second half of the film shows what happens when he returns some years later, seeking to reunite with his lost love.

A word that comes to mind to describe the film is 'elemental'. The weather is a constant presence, swirling round the isolated farmhouse. When it's not pouring down it's misty. The cinematography is haunting, the handheld camera roaming about of its own accord. The shallow depth of field, regular extreme close ups, and use of the 1.33:1 aspect ratio gives it an intimate, claustrophobic feel, placing the viewer right in the scene. It presents the Yorkshire Moors as a beautiful but unremittingly bleak world which certainly shapes the character of those who live there, and generally not for the better. The story is not afraid to go to some very dark places and make its characters unlikeable, but the assured direction makes it a gripping descent into the abyss.

The time jump in the middle gives Arnold that old problem of having different actors play the same characters at different ages. The young and adult Heathcliff (Solomon Glave and James Howson respectively) do bear a token resemblance but it's impossible to buy Shannon Beer and Kaya Scodelario, who play Cathy, as the same person. They look so unalike that you wonder whether it's a deliberate choice, visually illustrating just how much the character has changed in the intervening years (probably not). The young actors are both completely new to films and are excellent. The lack of dialogue helps cover for their inexperience but the bond they build feels genuine. Howson is also very good in an extremely difficult part, but Kaya Scodelario fails to bring the spark to Cathy that Shannon Beer does as her younger self.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: B / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Artificial Eye

Presentation
The Blu-ray preserves the 1.33:1 ratio - rare these days - and the image itself is superb. The level of detail is excellent and there are no compression anomalies to detect, despite the overwhelming prevalence of deep shadows. The sound is offered in 2.0 PCM and 5.1 DTS-HD; the surround effects of the latter are used to great effect when the rains lash down and the wind whips round the house.

Extras
Just a photo gallery.



Summary
Wuthering Heights will come as a shock to many and may be difficult to warm to, but it is completely engrossing. Prepare for subject matter as bleak and harsh as the terrain, but the film is not without moments of beauty.