“Wuthering Heights,” written in 1847 by Emily Brontë, is a book that is about many things from generational trauma to classism, racism and showing how cycles of abuse can be broken. However, the latest adaptation of this movie, written and directed by Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, is interested in none of those themes.

Instead, this movie is far more enamored with the idea of being “deep” and “romantic,” to the point that it misses the point of the original novel almost entirely. Fennell herself has stated that she made the movie based on how she imagined the book when she first read it at 14 years old, and this shows throughout the movie. Every character is reduced to a caricature, every plot beat is changed from gothic horror into romance and even the sets and costumes are so obviously inspired by the mind of a teenager who’s getting a “see me after class” written on their essays about “Wuthering Heights.”

However, one of the worst parts of Fennell basing her movies on her thoughts on the book when she was 14 is the fact that the cover of the copy she read had a picture showing the main male character, Heathcliff, as white. This meant that Fennell felt she had no choice but to cast a white Heathcliff. This is as good a time as any to bring up the largest issue in the movie: the whitewashing.

Heathcliff is a character described on the fifth page of the book as a dark skinned man. Fennell choosing to cast Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff is a modern example of whitewashing at its finest. This is far from the first time Heathcliff has been whitewashed on screen, and sadly, Wuthering Heights is not even the only blockbuster this year that cast a white actor to play a Roma character, with both “Avengers: Doomsdays” and “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” doing this as well. Still, just because it had happened before in no way excuses the fact that it’s happening now.

In fact, I would argue that because the erasure of Roma is so common within both “Wuthering Heights” adaptations and beyond, it is imperative that whoever is adapting the work to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Another questionable decision of Fennell’s is to turn Heathcliff and Cathy’s troubled, traumatic bond relationship into just two hot people who are mildly inconvenienced. This version of Heathcliff has, in general, all his more undesirable traits removed. No longer is Heathcliff a man broken by society’s racism and classism, turned into the monster society always said he was. Now, he’s just a chill white dude with an earring.

This brings us to perhaps the most egregious change this movie took, that being the rape and domestic abuse of Isabella Linton. In the book, Isabella is seduced by Heathcliff as part of Heathcliff’s revenge plan, and once they are married, Heathcliff repeatedly rapes and abuses her both physically and emotionally. Isabella was a revolutionary character for the time, as she was a woman who was raped and brutalized, but was treated with sympathy. On top of that, Isabella manages to regain her agency and run away from Heathcliff, raising their son on her own. Keep in mind, this book was written during a time when domestic abuse was not widely acknowledged, so not only did Brontë break tradition by even acknowledging spousal abuse, she went further than some artists today do by giving the victim power back.

So what does Fennell do with this proto-feminist icon? She turns Heathcliff’s abuse of Isabella into a consensual ‘BDSM’ relationship. If that doesn’t encapsulate Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” then I’m not sure what will. This movie takes one of the most profound works in the English canon and strips it of anything of value, leaving a shriveled husk filled with only passionless sex and the tackiest dresses you’ve ever seen.