Wuthering Heights

Andrea Arnold directs this gritty, pared-down version of Emily Brontë's classic Gothic novel. Heathcliff (Solomon Glave/James Howson), a runaway slave boy, is brought back to the Earnshaws' isolated, wind-blown moorland farm from the streets of Liverpool. Brought up together in this unforgiving landscape, Heathcliff and his adoptive sister, Cathy (Shannon Beer/Kaya Scodelario), become attached to one another on a primitive and instinctual level that transcends the bond of sibling or lover. When Cathy is reluctantly married off to insipid local landowner Edgar Linton (James Northcote), Heathcliff is cruelly abused and later thrown out by his brutish adoptive brother, Hindley (Lee Shaw). He eventually returns rich, embittered and still craving his beloved Cathy. (Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)