The Personal History of David Copperfield Review

This is a film I’ve been intrigued by for a while. I’m a massive fan of the works of Armando Iannucci but the writing style of him and his writing partners (Simon Blackwell, Tony Roach, Ian Martin and Jesse Armstrong) is very distinct and modern. So the idea of Iannucci doing an adaptation of Charles Dickens intrigued me and I wasn’t sure how well it would work. I didn’t need to worry though, the styles of Iannucci and Dickens work well together and create a really entertaining film.

The film follows the life of David Copperfield from when he was born, showing him going from rags, being forced to work in his stepdad’s bottling plant, to riches when he spends time with his aunt, Betsy Trotwood, and going back to being poor again, with a focus on the interesting characters Copperfield meets throughout his life. Now what Iannucci does here is inject some modernity into this story, even with being set in what appears to be the Victorian era, every element of the film feels modern and it works in making the story of David Copperfield relatable to a modern audience. Iannucci knows which elements to emphasise to relate to a modern audience and the film has a brisk pace to it which, although it does mean some elements don’t get the attention they probably should, creates a fun ride throughout the film. Even though Iannucci, working with Simon Blackwell, is adapting another writers work, there is still the feel of Iannucci’s dialogue throughout the film and the film is frequently laugh out loud hilarious. Aside from the comedy, there are some interesting themes raised in the film about the romanticism of childhood memories and how memories change from reality, making every version of a memory a story, along with ideas about the class struggle and the way the upper class gives no care or attention to the lower class and the snobbery that comes with this. These themes are the elements that I think could have been explored more, but they are still presented well in the context of the film.

With the cast, the main element of note is that Iannucci has gone for colourblind casting, based partly on Dev Patel being his first and only choice for David Copperfield. Whilst this has, inevitably, led to some corners of the internet screeching, those people should be ignored because the cast here is uniformly excellent. Dev Patel as Copperfield has this great charm about him, showing the intelligence of the character well, along with his sense of naivety in some elements and a bit of a world weary side, along with his compassion. Tilda Swinton is a scene stealer as Betsy Trotwood, her mannerisms having this great comedic edge to them whilst also showing the love she has for David, whilst Hugh Laurie steals the film every time he’s on screen, showing the scatterbrained nature of Mr Dick and how David helps clear the thoughts of King Charles I from his mind. Ben Whishaw makes a great, slimy villain as Uriah Heep, Peter Capaldi is a lot of fun as Mr Micawber and Benedict Wong gives a good mix of comedy and tragedy as Mr Wickfield. The casting of Morfydd Clark as both Dora Spenlow and Clara Copperfield gives a bit of a Freudian element to the relationship between David and Dora and Clark gets some of the best comedic moments in the film, and Rosalind Eleazar as Agnes Wickfield gets some great moments to show her intelligence and her own feelings towards David. Darren Boyd, Gwendoline Christie, Paul Whitehouse, Daisy May Cooper, Aneurin Barnard, Bronagh Gallagher, Aimee Kelly and Nikki Amuka-Bird are also great in the film, with the entire cast bouncing off each other brilliantly, adding to the charm of the film.

On a technical level, this is very impressive, easily the most cinematic film of Iannucci’s career. Due to the subject matter of them, Iannucci’s previous films have been filmed in more of a documentary style, with handheld cameras, but here, Iannucci has embraced a lot of on-location filming and has gone for a more stylised approach, fitting with his version of the story. The general framing device of a reading being given by Copperfield allows for some interesting stage elements to be present and the editing style of the film creates some really interesting imagery throughout the film that helps with the presentation of the plot. The production design and costume design meanwhile is excellent, helping to create a mix of the modern and the Victorian style, each piece of costume telling you exactly what you need to know about the characters and the production design emphasises the more fantastical elements of the story effectively.

Overall, The Personal History of David Copperfield is a good bit of fun. Whilst there are some elements that could have been explored more, the style Iannucci goes for in the film helps make this a thoroughly modern take on the story, whilst the cast does excellent work at bringing the script to life and creating a believable world for the film and it shows how these stories can be made relevant to a modern audience.

My Rating: 4/5