To me, this movie is perfection.

Good concept, poorly executed.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jimmy "Fingers" Angellelli (Harvey Keitel) is an aspiring concert pianist, but also a debt collector for his father who is a small-time racketeer. In addition Jimmy has enough sexual conflicts for a dozen men - sometimes he is shy, sometimes overly aggressive, most times attracted to women, sometimes attracted to men, but always sexually confused. And all of this is complicated by a serious prostate problem that makes the sexual act problematic in any case (be prepared for the most graphic prostate exam ever filmed).Jimmy's personality split between his better nature and being a thug is by implication handed down to him by his parents. His artistic side came from his mother, who was a pianist (now institutionalized) and his baser side came from his father Ben (Michael Gazzo). Ben is past his prime and depends on Jimmy to do his dirty work. In many ways Jimmy, who is a man in his thirties, is still a child. He is still trying to please his parents and make sense of his sexuality.Interesting themes, but I didn't buy a lot of what is presented. If Jimmy really had a shot at performing at Carnegie Hall, he would need to have been practicing six hours a day and studying with a mentor. We see scant evidence of that, so I just didn't believe in his talent as a pianist. Keitel is so obviously not playing the piano in those scenes where he is supposed to be playing Bach that it is disconcerting; his fake emotionalizing at the piano is embarrassing. Plus he is not very protective of his hands, to say the least.Michael Gazzo seemed to be able to talk only in an irritating shout. His overacting got on my nerves every time he made an appearance. And how was it that such a crude man was ever married to a classical pianist? Jimmy's sense of duty to his father did not seem well grounded. How can you have much allegiance to a father who tells you, "I should have strangled you in the crib"?However, Keitel gives a powerful, nuanced performance and that is the main attraction.This is the story of a man who is torn in so many directions that you are pretty certain that the ending is not going to be pretty, so don't expect to be uplifted when it's all over.This was essentially remade in France in 2005 as "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" (De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté). I think that film is more subtle and the personalities more well developed.

'Fingers' is the kind of movie that makes me value the 1970s over any other decade. A complex portrait of Jimmy Fingers, an ex-debt collector turned wanna be concert pianist (Harvey Keitel, in one of his top five performances), who finds himself drawn back into his old line of work as a favour to his aging gangster father (Michael V. Gazzo, 'The Godfather 2', 'Fear City'). Fingers isn't the most likable character, is obsessed by sex and music, both doo wop (which he plays at top volume on a boom box) and classical, and is obviously doomed to fail. Keitel is absolutely mesmerizing on screen, and the movie is filled with a supporting cast of interesting faces, including Jim Brown ('Slaughter'), Tisa Farrow (Fulci's 'Zombie Flesh Eaters'!), Danny Aiello ('Do The Right Thing', 'Jacob's Ladder'), future "Angel" Tanya Roberts, and at least two Sopranos. I don't know why 'Fingers' isn't mentioned as much as the more celebrated 1970s crime movies of Scorsese and Coppola. Godard and Tarantino are both fans of this movie, and you will be too if you give it a look. Great stuff!

Why do we want to spend the hour and a half that it takes to watch this movie in the company of a character so loathsome that we would do anything to avoid him if we met him in real life? Jimmy Fingers is arrogant, self-obsessed, sexually violent and just plain creepy. O.K., there are moments in which we get to see that he has a better side, when he comforts a destitute women who is crying in a doorway, or when he sticks by his small time hoodlum father, in spite of the fact that he is even more repellent than Fingers himself. There is so much in this movie to make you squirm from the no-holds barred, bloody violence and a painful proctological exam to the scenes in which Fingers annoys everyone in earshot by playing loud doo-wop music on his portable tape player and threatening violence towards anyone who objects. With its fine acting and totally unpredictable story-line, this film is undeniable entertaining, but it's appeal is a rather masochistic one.

Many times over the years James Toback has been referred to as ‘brilliant', and a good deal of those times the film ‘Fingers' is mentioned in the same sentence.It stands right there with Resevoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant, and Mean Streets-all Harvey Keitel films which have over the years gotten far more applause than they did earlier..Actually the premise is just enough unique: the concert pianist from the wrong side of the tracks, the carefree and confused collector for his bookie father.Toback's dialogue is very raw, but it is on target for the very raw world he describes.Michael Gazzo gives one of his best performances ever as Keitel's father.Not to be missed, but if you look to Toback to recreate this magic with his later efforts, ‘The Pick-Up Artist' or `Exposed', don't waste your time. Even his recent `Two Girls and a Guy' might have been `Two Mil Down the Drain' without the superb performance of Robert Downey Jr.