1.0 out of 5 stars
No comparison to the book. At all., April 4 2004
This review is from: Wuthering Heights (2003) (DVD)
I feel generous giving it simply one star...
This MTV interpretation focuses mostly on bland, mediocre romance and doesn't even hint at the original, dark themes of the book. The characters have been malformed into stereotypes, especially Heathcliff. Instead of a dark, unkempt boy, "Heath" is a Californian blonde who likes wearing dirty shirts but remains good-looking at the same time. Also note that he's not shown as violent or callous at all; they save all of that for Hindley, erm, "Hendrix." I wasn't impressed by the score, which amounted to about three or four unremarkable songs being played over and over.
In my opinion, it's not even worth renting. Watching a few pop videos will give you a pretty good idea of what it was like, without wasting as much time as the movie does.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Emily Bronte MTV Makeover!, Mar 15 2004
This review is from: Wuthering Heights (2003) (DVD)
I don't know what Emily Bronte, one of the best literary minds of all times, would have made of MTV's adaptation of her classic Wuthering Heights! Almost everything would have appeared alien to her, and imaginative guess work can only offer a very modest speculation about what she would have thought of fancy cars and rock music.But one thing is for sure, she would have certainly known the difference between mediocrity and creativity! And alas this newest and loosest of interpretations of her classic masterpiece of love, passion and betrayal would have made her wish she never wrote it in the first place.
Modern interpretations of classics are by no means a bad venture, as the examples of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet and Alfonso Cuaron's Great Expectations clearly demonstrate,but the problem with the MTV's version of Bronte's classic is its mediocrity..just a plain, lifeless and average direction and acting. Had the film had a different title, and had MTV did not market it in an 'in your face hip, cool, trendy and young' way, then maybe it would have been much more bearable.
MTV's venture into the world of movie making has not been a glorious success so far, and simply because they are following the same approach and mental frame that they take in their musical and reality TV productions, and this is a big mistake.
Anyway, the overbearing and passionate Victorian world of Bronte and her dramatic but sadly short life were very much part of her work, yet her stories with their universal themes do indeed belong to all the ages, and make good movie material, if only the script, direction and acting are good enough to retain the spirit of the book, while infusing it with a modern outlook. The only success of MTV's Wuthering Heights was probably to turn one of the best writers of all time in her grave. Avoid!
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