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Fingersmith | 
| Director: Aisling Walsh
Actors: Stephanie Middleton, David Troughton, Imelda Staunton, Karen Seacombe, Tallulah Pitt-brown
Studio: Acorn Media
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $24.99
You Save: $5.00 (17%)
New (34) Used (9) from $18.00
Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 11162
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 180 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 7907
ISBN: 1569387907
UPC: 054961790791
EAN: 9781569387900
ASIN: B000A4T804
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: September 13, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
From Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet, comes this twisting and twisted Victorian-era thriller with an L-word charge. Sally Hawkins stars as Sue, an orphan who grows up among the reprobates of Lant Street to become an accomplished "fingersmith" (thief). Elaine Cassidy costars as Maud Lilly, an heiress who, as a young girl, was plucked from the madhouse and raised by her stern, bibliophile uncle (Charles Dance). He makes her wear gloves at all times so as not to smudge the precious tomes he makes her read every night. Enter Richard Rivers (Rupert Evans, the otherwise sterling cast's weakest link), an artist hired to give her painting lessons. But he has designs on Maude's fortune, and recruits Sue for an elaborate con. That's when the gloves really come off. Originally broadcast on the BBC, this riveting three-part tale of illicit passion and betaryal is by turns harrowing and quite erotic (the tasteful sex scenes manage to generate heat without baring a lot of skin). The literate script reveals its feminist leanings ("You are a man and might do everything," Maude tells Richard during their first meeting. "I am a woman and might do nothing."). The superb cast includes Academy Award-nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) as Mrs. Sucksby, a Fagin-esque character who mentored Sue, and has a few surprises for Maud, as well. --Donald Liebenson
Product Description
Growing up as a foster child among a family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder hopes to pay back that kindness by playing a key role in a swindle scheme devised by their leader, who is planning to con a fortune out of the naive Maud Lilly.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: STAUNTON/DANCE
Title: FINGERSMITH
Street Release Date: 09/13/2005
Domestic
Genre: DRAMA
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 I loved it January 6, 2009
Lauren Shivayka (New Jersey, USA)
I didn't read the book but only watched the movie. I absolutely loved this movie.. Great acting and a good ending which is rare in my opinion for gay movies.
While everyone is entitled to their own opinion... November 23, 2008
waxpoetic (Keystone Heights, Fl)
I'm completely confused how anybody that's actually watched Fingersmith, could give it a bad review? I've read the book and I've seen the movie. And, I understand that I just might be the only person on the planet that loved the movie more than the book...The chemistry between Elaine Cassidy (Maud) and Sally Hawkins (Sue) just took my breath away. Amazing indeed! Through such great acting they allowed me to feel their love much stronger than the book did... This by far is the greatest love story that I've ever seen! I truly felt it deeply and believed them to be in love and in love with a fiery passion for one another...Flawlessly beautiful and twisted...All the actors are brilliant and perfectly casted! However it's Elaine Cassidy (Maud) that is a rare talent and most exquisite! I've never felt so "charmed" by somebody that I've never even met before...Elaine Cassidy is very special indeed...Perhaps you may find that you'll agree with me, so I would highly recommend Disco Pigs and Felicia's Journey!
 The book is AMAZING -- the movie is NOT October 19, 2008
C. Joy (Santa Cruz, CA)
I absolutely loved reading Fingersmith. It is an incredible, complex, beautiful book with unexpected twists, rich characters, and a wonderful, suspenseful plot. It is one of my favorite books.
I was therefore very disappointed when I watched this movie. Basically the movie, though mostly sticking to Sarah Waters' plot, destroys the magic of the book. The pace is wrong, the whole thing plods along drudgingly. I had to stop watching it after the first disk, and couldn't bring myself to finish watching it for months. To be fair, the second disk is better than the first, but not by much. And it's not that I just dislike movie adaptations of great books. The film version of Tipping the Velvet is excellent. It's merely that this adaptation of Fingersmith is NOT.
My recommendation is to skip the terrible movie and read the book!
Another Lesbian Betrayal Flick October 13, 2008
Cosmos33 (NM, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I admit that I've not read this book and that I watched the movie purely to enjoy the love scenes which were well-reviewed. While the love scenes are indeed sweet and well done, they are ruined by the ending. Why is it so hard to find a film with sensual and sincere lesbian love scenes that are not invalidated at the end by death, doom, or betrayal?
 A mystery within a puzzle wrapped inside an enigma... May 30, 2008
Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fingersmith (Aisling Walsh, 2005)
Fingersmith, actually a two-part British TV miniseries, came to America as a three-hour DVD. Based on Sarah Waters' novel of the same name, it details the dealings of Susan Smith (Sally Hawkins, recently of The Painted Veil), a thief (thus the title) in London in the nineteenth century who becomes involved in a complicated scheme to swindle a large sum of money out of Maud Lilly (The Others' Elaine Cassidy). Smith, through a series of intrigues, becomes Lilly's handmaiden, but the two of them quickly develop a friendship on top of that, and possibly something more (I haven't read the novel, so I don't know if it's explicit there; it's certainly implied here). The trick is, there's a great deal more to Maud Lilly than anyone realizes; once you hit the halfway point, the surprises here come thick and fast, and what looked to be a simple crime story blossoms into an all-out mystery/thriller that I was in no way expecting. And what a pleasant surprise it is.
It helps, of course, that both Hawkins and Cassidy are almost painfully beautiful, and that, plus the script's implications as to their relationship, certainly helps propel the first half of the film, which is half crime story and half Merchant/Ivory comedy of manners (a genre of film to which I have never been able to warm myself). At the halfway point, though, I stopped noticing, and for someone like me, that's saying something. How many red herrings can you throw into one script? How many little side perversions can you add without things becoming too overloaded for anyone to see your plot? How many twists and turns, how many character revelations, the whole bit? Yes, it does end up playing the Vitorian-melodrama card so loved by writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne (I heard a pretty strong echo of the last line of House of the Seven Gables in the last few minutes of this film, though it's not quite as deus ex machina as Hawthorne allowed himself; still, it's awfully convenient), but it's such an enchanting thrill ride getting there I actually didn't half mind. There's a great deal of fun to be had here, even if you're not a big fan of Victorian costume drama; a very entertaining little film, well worth watching. ***
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