Product Details

• Actors: Zoe Tapper, Anna Madeley, Domini Blythe, Amanda Plummer, Mary Jo Randle
• Directors: Tim Fywell
• Writers: Andrew Davies, Sarah Waters
• Producers: Adrian Bate, Andrew Davies, Bogdan Moncea, Greg Dummett, Gub Neal
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MTV
• DVD Release Date: August 19, 2008
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018O5WVO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,711 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Affinity" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Affinity, based on the mystery romance novel by Sarah Waters, is a well-done melodrama spun from ghost tales, sexual tension, and female rebellion. Director Tim Fywell, known for his work with Masterpiece Theater and other British television programming, maintains period detail in this story of a modern love quandary between two women in Victorian England. In it, Margaret Prior (Anna Madeley) begins visiting Millbanks, a dreary women’s prison, to combat the malaise she feels following her father’s death. There, she meets famed medium Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper), imprisoned for her client’s murder that she alleges was committed by Peter Quick, an evil, uncontrollable spirit she channelled. As the two women grow closer, their psychic battles with unknown forces increase congruently to the external and internal conflicts that arise, namely warnings from Margaret’s male suitor, and the prison guards that protest her criminal alliance. The physical beauty of the two actresses greatly enhances the sexual tension implicit to this supernatural fantasy. The story maintains an historical relevance to women’s socio-political issues, as it envisions what women’s prisons looked like during the Industrial Age, and it tackles a subject matter, namely séance, that was of major interest to women during the Victorian era. Dark atmospheres and repeated close-ups of the protagonists’ emotionally fraught faces lend Affinity a severity that is borderline sensationalistic. Overall, Affinity functions as a witchy soap opera suited to ladies wishing for a light spook. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

AFFINITY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story!, October 9, 2008

By 

dcg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Affinity (DVD)

Interesting story! As expected, it is beautifully filmed, the dialogue is convincing and the actresses are wonderfull - like other Sarah Waters stories. The actresses do a wonderful job in displaying love for one another, despite the lack of love scenes between them. I Really enjoyed the twist in this one, very unexpected! I give it a 4 however, because the end was a bit disappointing. I agree with the previous reviewer in that if you like happy endings movies, this one will likely dissapoint. Overall though, I though it was a very good movie and worth a look.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Elective Affinities, September 24, 2009

By 

Amaranth "music fan" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affinity (DVD)

"Affinity" is a surprisingly good thriller set in a women's prison during Victorian times. Margaret Prior (Anne Madeley) is devastated by her father's death;to make matters worse, her former lover Helen is now wed to her brother. She decides to be a lady visitor at a women's prison. In a sense,it symbolizes women's imprisonment at the time. Margaret is expected to marry&bear children--but she keeps her secret "locked tightly inside her." Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper) is literally imprisoned, apparently for an accident that happened during a seance. The conventions of the time are confining. Anna Massey,a classic British actress,stars as a prison matron.

Margaret finds herself falling in love with Selina. Their union is primarily platonic (unlike other Sarah Waters movies)--there are only a few chaste kisses at the end. Margaret finds herself haunted by spirits. Her locket carrying Helen's hair vanishes; she mysteriously receives flowers. She finally has the strength to break her engagement with Theophilus.

"Affinity" is an engrossing movie. The cast is uniformly excellent. Like Sarah Waters' previous movie "Fingersmith",con games are important to the plot. The final plot twist is heartbreaking,and surprised even me. Despite its use of overused tropes (women in prison, suicidal lesbians, same-sex relationships basically doomed to tragic ends),it succeeds as a thriller.

2.0 out of 5 stars What it lacks: redeeming value, October 20, 2011

By 

Diva - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affinity (DVD)

Never thought I'd say this: a film with a lesbian subplot that can cure insomnia. I have not read any of Sarah Waters' novels, but this is the third movie I've watched that was based on them and I'm beginning to think that Waters has a poor opinion of women and lesbians (albeit disguised in her smoke and mirrors). In this convoluted suspense story, the female characters are crooks, swindlers, gullible, lonely, controlling, violent, desperate, suicidal -- and in one important scene, sexual molesters. If this was also the novel, then it's a mystery to me how Waters has managed to gain a loyal following of lesbian and feminist readers.