flypoodle

Nobody does thinly veiled violence quite like Bob Hoskins, and nobody does naive but resilient like Elaine Cassidy, so when they both come together in a film, it's going to be electric to watch.

Atom Egoyan sticks closely to the original William Trevor story, lifting most of the dialogue directly from the page. He recreates Felicia's increasing desperation as she tries to find the young man who has got her pregnant, the claustrophobia of the web that apparently harmless Mr. Hilditch weaves around her. You know there's something not quite right about him, but the whole story gives itself up slowly.

Egoyan strays from the book in the introduction of Hilditch's mother, a 1950s TV cook (a kind of pre-feminist Delia Smith). We see her in flashback and on the videos Hilditch slavishly follows when he's preparing food. Frankly, I don't think that this adds anything - is it meant to explain why he's like he is? Trevor feels no need to explain Hilditch's behaviour, which makes him more of a monster and much scarier.

The only other thing that slightly spoils what is otherwise a superb film is the heavy handed use at times of a mystical sounding, sub Clannad soundtrack, which is meant to invoke "Irishness", but is totally unnecessary.

But those really are small complaints. Hoskins is excellent as a man who preys on vulnerable girls, and Cassidy is phenomenal in what was her first main picture. Incredibly, she was only 18 when she made it.

I love Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, and was worried about the TV adaptation as I'd been disappointed by the BBC's version of Tipping the Velvet (which although beautiful to look at was let down by Keeley Hawes not being able to sing, and Rachael Stirling not being able to act). Fingersmith is a very tightly plotted novel with breath taking twists and turns and I wondered if this could be done justice to in just 3 hours.

I needn't have worried. The adaptation was excellent, very little cut out, and went along at a cracking pace (although I did wonder whether if you hadn't read the book, would you miss things?). It had the look and feel of a BBC classic costume drama and i kept having to remind myself that this is a contemporary book.

The acting was stellar. Sally Hawkins acting her heart out as Sue Trinder, and Elaine Cassidy, a slow burner, who by the end of the story was incandescent as Maud Lilley. The love, the passion, the realisation of the acts of betrayal both would have to perform, were written on their faces. It was a joy to watch.

I hope Rachael Stirling was watching: that's how you play a Sarah Waters character!

Much is made of the violence in Disco Pigs, reviewers saying that it's mindless, but I think this is a much subtler film than they are giving it credit for. Pig and Runt are surrounded by constant violence - this is a society that brutalises it's children, is it any wonder that they then become brutal? Runt, especially, is the victim of violence, it's not surprising that she becomes complicit in the violence Pig meets out. And as for Pig, he's a bright boy, but one caught up in his own world, how better a way to express his love for Runt than by doing to others what is done to her, but on a far grander, more nihilistic scale? He is never anything but gentle and tender with her.

Girls are drawn to borderline psychopathic men, look at Myra Hindley and Maxine Carr. And Runt doesn't stay passive, ultimately she is sickened by the violence and realises she has to make the break and discover her own personality.

This is definitely a film to watch. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy give stellar performances, and are definitely stars of the future. Look beyond the surface apparently mindless violence, see what's really going on underneath.