It is fair to say that Wuthering Heights has not had the critical reaction that the creators of the film would have hoped for.
The Emerald Fennell romance starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi was one of the most hyped films of the year, yet it currently sits at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, a mediocre 6.3 on IMDb, and a Letterboxd average of just 2.9 stars.
When trying to decipher where it went wrong you can point to various issues. This could be the scene promised to be even crazier than Saltburn’s bathtub scene (it wasn’t) or the fact that the film was marketed as if it was the raunchiest ever made (there was no nudity as one review pointed out everything that happens could be found in your average episode of Bridgerton), but if you ask me it was far more simple than this.
Jacob Elordi’s accent in the film is terrible.
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Going along to the cinema I had high hopes for Wuthering Heights despite not being Emerald Fennell’s biggest fan.
Elordi and Robbie are two of the best actors around at the moment, yet both their accents are less than convincing. The Heathcliff actor, however, is the primary offender.
The early parts of a film are oftentimes the most important when it comes to immersing the viewers in the world of the film.
From Elordi’s first words however, my screening was full of snickers as the Australian actor attempted a Yorkshire working class accent.
This make-or-break moment ultimately broke, and the film never really recovers from this lack of believability.
Where you are supposed to be seeing him as this gruff working class Yorkshireman, instead it sounded closer to a southern University student deciding now is the perfect time to whip out his ‘down t’uh mines’ impression.
This is not a belief unique to me however, with fans on social media commenting on his accent.
One post on X said: “Jacob Elordi needs to be trialed and sentenced by every person in north Yorkshire for his dreadful attempt at a northern accent.”
Another post said: “Jacob Elordi was a bad choice for Heathcliff, not because he’s not ethnically ambiguous enough but because his attempt at Northern English accent makes him sound more like he’s in the League of Gentlemen than than Wuthering Heights.”
Celebrity dialect coach Sarah Valentine weighed in on his and Robbie’s accent, stating that neither were ‘perfect’.
She is far more of a fan however than either me or those weigh in online, saying: “Personally, I think his Yorkshire accent is great.
“There are so many different Yorkshire accents, but there will be Yorkshire folk who don't like it because it doesn't sound like them, which is fine.
"To be honest, I didn't even realise he was Australian until I looked it up, which says a lot about how good he is with accents.
“With UK accents, especially in places like Yorkshire, there's so much variation from town to town that absolute accuracy is hard to pin down anyway.”
To each their own, but for me – Wuthering Heights was ruined from the moment Elordi’s Yorkshire accent began.
Topics: Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie, TV and Film, Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin