Wuthering High (2015)

Great Film overall

Better Late Then Never

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Miserable film with deaths occurring as if it were 1947's "Mourning Becomes Electra." As the wealthy father, James Caan sounds like an uneducated man over his head trying to cope with two children affected in different ways by their mother's suicide.As if this isn't enough to bear, Caan takes in the troubled teenager of the people who had worked for him, who had recently been deported.The daughter talks in an annoying monotone. Emotionally distraught, she has become an outcast among her friends and the brother has taken to heavy drinking and drug abuse.There are constant fights, especially with the young guy who really loved her, a scene in the health class where our heroine and the teenager go berserk and the class follows suit in ripping everything up.There are lies told, wills changed, fatal coronaries occurring after the changes and another suicide. Did he have to climb into her grave to show that he really loved her? Purely miserable at its worst level.

A modern day adaptation of Wuthering Heights could have been good. But the movie is so badly cast and badly written. The lead actress who plays Cathy Paloma is isn't broody she is just off putting. And no way she looks like a rich kid she is playing. Errol Flynn's grandson Sean Flynn plays her stoner brother. Heathcliff is now Heath the son of a Mexican illegal immigrant. Zero chemistry. Francesca Eastwood is pretty but a bit too old looking to be in high school. James Caan shouldn't have been in this movie. The acting is generally wooden and amateurish especially the rich guy who like Cathy. Bad message for teenagers - brats without a cause.Please don't watch this dud. It's not worth the time.

Following the suicide of her mother, moody Malibu teenager Paloma Kwiatkowski (as Cathy Earnshaw) withdraws from her snooty friends and rediscovers childhood pal Andrew Jacobs (as Heath). The son of an illegal Mexican immigrant, Mr. Jacobs has grown into a noticeably bulging hunk (in one of the couple's beach scenes), with beautiful hair. The mature-looking high school teenagers have a lot of sex, but their relationship seems doomed. She's the heir of mega-wealthy James Caan (as Earnshaw) and he's the Hispanic son of a super-poor deported mother. Also interested in Ms. Kwiatkowski is upscale Matthew Boehm (as Eddie Linton)...This is a modernized version of Emily Bronte's classic "Wuthering Heights" (1847) with the setting changed to a Malibu, California high school. The performers don't look like they're in high school, but this is a "Lifetime" TV movie fantasy, after all. Almost everything about the story is wretched through most of the running time, and it positively reeks with ending scenes that make no sense. Events during the final 15 minutes are especially confusing; either adapting 1800s details proved too difficult, or director Anthony DiBlasi and the crew simply ran out of time. You didn't miss Mr. Caan's final expiration scene; apparently, it wasn't presented...The camera is steady and the cast is attractive, but the execution is silly...They should have had it begin with Kwiatkowski in college and made progress from there, after an opening with "Cathy" and "Heath" as young kids. A revision that works is having the novel's older brother "Hindley" appear as a candidate for rehab, traveling in a van dubbed "Moor Side" (now, that's clever). Interestingly, he is played by Errol Flynn's grandson Sean Flynn (as Lee). Hollywood nepotism doubles up by likewise featuring Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca Eastwood (as Ellen). One of her party dresses is particularly outstanding. For thong bikinis, Jacobs' final pool party scene can't be beat.*** Wuthering High School (3/14/15) Anthony DiBlasi ~ Paloma Kwiatkowski, Andrew Jacobs, Sean Flynn, Matthew Boehm