One of the year's most controversial films, with a 58% critic's score on Rotten Tomatoes, is streaming on HBO Max from this weekend

Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights — (Image credit: Warner Bros.)

It's a film that has sharply divided opinions, with some, like David Sims in The Atlantic, praising it as a "rip-snortingly carnal good time", while others – like Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian – have decried it as an "emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire."

We're talking, of course, about Emerald Fennell's take on "Wuthering Heights" (yes, the quotation marks are intentional on the director's part), which makes its streaming debut this week on HBO Max.

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"Wuthering Heights" is inspired by the all time classic 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. The story follows the troubled romance between young Cathy Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and a handsome but brooding outcast named Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi). The two meet as youngsters and form an undeniable attraction. By the time they have grown up, however, Cathy is planning to marry a wealthy textile merchant named Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), which leads Heathcliff to spiral into bitter jealousy. And so begins a tale of deep romantic longing and toxic obsession.

Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.