Her looks are perfect and she and Fiennes have real chemisty. In the major roles, Ralph Fiennes is a very fine Heathcliff - combining ruthless sadism and vulnerability.
In the secondary roles we see a young Jeremy Northam as Hindley Earnshaw and an outstanding performance by Janet McTeer as Ellen Dean. The movie is less successfully directed by Peter Kosminsky who does a straightforward job capturing the suitably wild and rugged Yorkshire locations - nothing fancy but nothing terrible either. This clarifies a notoriously complex structure and thankfully, Devlin does not cut down on Ellen's screen-time. The only notable change is to make a notional character called Emily Bronte narrate rather than Ellen. This movie version of the book is admirably condensed to under two hours by a screenwriter called Anne Devlin who seems to have done little else - a shame as she manages to capture the essence of the novel and leave little out. He returns to find Cathy married and pregnant and takes a slow revenge on successive generations of her family. Heathcliff is abused by Cathy's elder brother to the point where she is tempted to marry a more genteel neighbour with better social standing - an act which becomes inevitable when Heathcliff leaves in a fit of pique to make his fortune. Instead of elegant courtship, we have a headstrong passionate girl called Cathy who is in love with a stubborn, violent young gypsy boy called Heathcliff. It is framed with a chilling ghost story - with images of broken glass and blood - in a grim manor house on the moors. On paper, Emily Bronte's novel fulfils this criteria. I was in the mood for a girly costume drama - a little bit of self-indulgence - but for the sake of Doctor007 opted for something with a little bit more fire and a bit less simpering. So, I opted for an obscure remake of WUTHERING HEIGHTS from her back-catalogue. Watching the new Anthony Minghella flick, BREAKING AND ENTERING I was reminded of how much I admired the actress Juliette Binoche.
With the London Film Festival at an end, Doctor007 and I indulged in a bit of quality time with a classic romantic movie and dinner date.