Affinity (2008)

DVD Released May 6, 2009

There seems to be a whole sub-genre of lesbian historical fiction set in repressed Victorian England. Affinity is the second of Sarah Water's novels to be adapted to screen, the first being the sensual BBC mini-series Tipping the Velvet. Unfortunately Affinity is a failure, a low-budget and shoddily produced mess that fails to do justice to the gripping underlying story.

Margaret Prior (Anna Madeley), recovering from her father's death and still living with her overbearing mother, becomes a regular visitor to Millbank Prison and befriends Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper) a prisoner who has a special connection with the spirit world. She has been imprisoned for harming a young girl during a séance. As a "medium" she is appealing to Margaret, who sees her as an escape from her repressed self. Gradually the connection between them grows into something more obsessive, and possibly more romantic.

It’s inexplicable that despite the hefty screen time devoted to the growing connection between the two women, they remain thinly drawn and one dimensional. The romance is hence unconvincing and merely facilitates the inept plot that only becomes engaging towards the latter stages. This is accompanied throughout by a miserable visual palette and tiresome and pointless shaky camera. You can stop the camera shaking, Tim (Fywell, the director), it’s called a tripod.

The performances by the two leads, at least, are compelling, but it’s small compensation. One wonders what a more accomplished production, with a better script, could have achieved from such strong source material.

This single-disc DVD release is of unremarkable visual quality and contains a good selection of extras including a making-of documentary, deleted scenes and interviews with the principles.

2/5