Peter Kosminsky's screen adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is filled with a dark brooding atmosphere suitable to its theme of doomed love.
Ralph Fiennes gives a passionate performance as the wild Heathcliff, an orphan who is brought up by a well-to-do English family. He grows up with Cathy (Juliette Binoche) and falls in love with her. But seeking social standing and the accoutrements of a more cultured life, she marries a rich neighbor instead of following her heart's desire.
The angry Heathcliff funnels all of his rage into an elaborate scheme of revenge which, in the end, leaves him as friendless and lonely as he was when he was first picked up off the streets of London.
This emotionally enthralling version of Emily Bronte's novel is the first to present the complete story. It comes across as a vivid anatomy of the soul's power to animate or to decimate life.