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Product description

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Susan 'Sue' Trinder is a fingersmith (British slang for thief) who lives in the slums of London with a baby farmer (person who looks after unwanted babies) Mrs.Sucksby. When a once rich man, who gambled all his money away, presents them with a scam that has a payout of 40,000 pounds, Sue signs on to swindle rich Maud Lilly. Maud is an orphan who lives with her uncle, but what exactly is going on in the Lilly house? Sue will pose as Maud's maid so that Mr. Rivers (the gentleman) can get close to and eventually marry her. Their plan is to put Maud in the madhouse and take the money for themselves. All goes astray though when Sue falls in love with Maud. And the question is: Who can you trust? SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, ...Fingersmith

Product details

Language ‏ : ‎ English
Director ‏ : ‎ Aisling Walsh
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Import, PAL, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 180 minutes
Actors ‏ : ‎ Imelda Staunton, Charles Dance, Elaine Cassidy, Sally Hawkins, Rupert Evans
Studio ‏ : ‎ Network
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08RD8FLZ5
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Customer Reviews:
593 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		17%
3 star		10%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Norma B

Not quite a five

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2019

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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 -

8 people found this helpful

Stevie

It's like Dickens but with stuff that he would never right about

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2019

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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.

3 people found this helpful

Vicuña

Creditable adaptation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2019

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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.

Marco Rossini

Very cleverly made and impressed, but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 December 2013

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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!

7 people found this helpful

Chris Newman

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2020

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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.

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Fingersmith

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