Fingersmith [DVD]

Slap bang in the middle of 'Fingersmith' comes one of the best plot twists I've ever read or viewed. The already-complex story is turned completely on its head. Brilliant! It took me unawares - something I love in novels and films, and something Sarah Waters is very, very skilled at.The production as a whole, though, isn't quite a five. There are a number of reasons. The two main actresses, while brilliant individually, aren't as compelling together as, say, Keeley Hawes and Rachael Stirling in 'Tipping the Velvet'. A couple of minor characters seemed to lack roundedness, in relation to one example, Charles Dance, who fully-realizes the blinkered uncle in a brilliantly-understated performance. (No surprises there.) The powers behind the production also managed to get hold of the fabulously talented Imelda Staunton, so I'm unsure why that level of quality isn't replicated all the way through the cast. Too often (it's fine occasionally), the central pairing's dialogue is broken up by hesitations and meaningful looks, which impedes the flow of the film, and makes the script more banal than it should be. And the payoff for dancing along with the lively 'Fingersmith' plot - including the over-cooked murder scene - is surely a final dissolution of awkwardness between the two main characters, a welling up of emotion and a metaphorical loosening of stays. Which doesn't really happen.Imagine the last note of a symph -

As a devotee of Sarah Waters work and after having just read the fantastic book on which this is adapted, I was eager to watch it. If you have not read the book, then as a stand alone piece of work, it holds its own however I don't think any film or TV adaptation could do the book and the detail contained therein really do it justice however this adaptation has a really good go. The plot twists and turns like a twisty turny thing and as ever, the BBC production values are superb. The cast play their roles very well with a stand out performance (as ever) from Imelda Staunton. Have yet to see "The Handmaiden" on which again is based on the book and that is on my list. Probably about as good as it gets however the book was only going to be a piece of work that would be a challenge to give it full justice.

I read the book some years ago and this production almost captures the essence of the tale. But there’s a richness to the text and quite a lot of detail which doesn’t quite make it to the screenplay and final film production.This is good, but slightly lacking, hence a 4 star review. Waters is adept at characters and whilst this captures the main players, the book has more detail. So I found the film slightly flat. It’s Dickensian and part of Walters’ brilliance is her mix of characters and plotting. This is a tale filled with both; the plot twists are excellent and it’s a worthy adaptation.Some extras on the dvd including character profiles and behind the scenes. I bough5 this Used very good from a third party seller (Music Magpie) for just over £1, so it’s a bargain.

Saw Handmaidens, loved it so bought the book Fingersmith. Loved that too so when I found out the BBC had done an adaption had to complete the set. It is also wonderful. In my opinion best to see/read them in the above order as there are more plot twists in the book than the film and the BBC adaption is pretty close to the book.

To be short, it's an excellent film (two parts in one DVD). Obviously I'm not going into the plots unlike some other reviewers so it'll be a 'safe review' for those who haven't watched it yet.I thought the whole film was very cleverly made, including the meticulous attention to details in the costumes, the scenes in London, and so on so forth, and the script writer did an excellent job too! It was completely unpredictable, and although it was based on the novel by a modern writer, it was almost as good as Charles Dickens' Bleak House, apart from some sensual scenes which were slightly too graphic, which would probably prevent this work to be compared to more classical novels by film or book critics.The actors were also brilliant - the two main young female characters were convincing and very impressive - I want to congratulate the actresses. Charles Dance appears as a Victorian scholar, the role that Dance would be the best actor to play. All the supporting actors and actresses, especially Imelda Staunton was brilliant. This kind of high quality TV series is something I think my TV license fees worth paying for (although obviously I had to pay some more to get this DVD)!I understand that the author of this novel wanted to picture the love and carnal attachment between two young women from two completely different walks of life, but I can't stop wondering if showing the lesbian love so graphically was really necessary in this drama, as the whole story would easily grab the viewers' hearts, and there are great twists, and these alone can make the whole story unpredictable and exciting, so without the sexuality parts this would have made a great film for much wider audiences (although I imagine the author wanted to set lesbianism as the central part of the context). Because of this, I don't think this will make the best choice for a family movie for Christmas.It's a three-hour-long film including both parts, so it's quite long, but if possible I recommend you watch both parts in one day as you might get confused the different perspectives that are shown in each part. Unfortunately there are no subtitles available in this DVD. If there were, I might have added one more star to my rating.Hope this helps and you enjoy the film. Merry Christmas!

A good story but muddled in the telling and I thought rather poorly performed. Many of the scenes were far too long and by the half-way mark I could only look forward to the end. The Korean version of the same story as told in The Handmaiden is a far superior movie with the looser aspects of the plot cut out, much tighter directing and great acting.