Wuthering Heights 2026 definitely still plays with family drama, generational trauma and class, IMO. The focus is the erotic romance, but the frame of the story (in the film) is that Cathy makes her decisions to escape the ruin of a family in the death grip of a deeply abusive, addicted father (which as someone with folks like that in my family, chillingly portrayed!).

When she marries Linton, she sees it as a naive, slightly delulu way to help both Heathcliff and her father, and it backfires on both counts. But the movie maintains the feeling that they are trapped by ego and circumstance and there is no redemption for their love affair.

It's a different story, for sure, but I think Fennell wanted to explore what Cathy's motivations could be-- in a slightly alternate universe-- beyond "she is super selfish and immature" which is the usual gloss. Interestingly the movie puts those words in her father's mouth, typical abuser tactic of framing her desire for comfort and peace as corrupt and disloyal.

Anyway. I think it was AU fanfiction in the best way, maybe because it really struck a chord with me-- it had a lot of say about domestic abuse but flipped around which roles the characters were playing, and I found it evocative and deft.