A One Mann’s Movies review of The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
So, as a part of the latest lockdown, I’m trying to revisit some of the movies I missed at the cinema during 2020. And “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a case in point, released in the January of last year.
Certification:
A love-struck Copperfield (Dev Patel) resorts to apple-tree-ventriloquism. (Source: FilmNation Entertainment).
David Copperfield was ruined by my English class!
I went to school in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire, so long ago that everything was in black and white! We had a book club called “Scoop” where you selected books to order from a monthly magazine. Encouraged by my wonderful English teacher, Mr Waugh, and in an effort to ‘improve my mind’, I largely ignored the cheap ‘schlock-books’. Instead, I delved into many of the classics. Charles Dickens; Jules Verne; H.G. Wells; John Wyndham; John Buchan. I sampled them all. Unfortunately I was never able to connect with two of Dickens’s greatest classics: Great Expectations and David Copperfield. The reason? We were forced to read them – painfully – out loud in sections as a class. God, I hated that!
As such, I’m blissfully unaware of the story of one Master Copperfield, so this movie was extremely entertaining for me.
Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard) and Copperfield (Dev Patel) in prosperous times. (Source: FilmNation Entertainment).
Chock full of interesting characters.
The Personal History of David Copperfield starts with the young man (Dev Patel) regaling a theatre audience with a reading of his autobiography. This immediately pitches him into witnessing his own birth to widowed single mother Clara (the wonderful Morfydd Clark, or “Saint Maud” fame). From there, Copperfield goes helter-skelter into a rollercoaster life encompassing workhouse-bottling poverty, fish-gutting and rich gentlemanly pursuits.
You have to admire the artistry of Dickens. Of course, I am aware of some of the plethora of rich and complex characters that Dickens imagined including the rascally Mr Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and the ever-‘umble but conniving Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw). But the story is literally rammed with amazing characters. It’s almost as if Dickens conjured up full pen-portraits of 30 different characters and then contrived to fit them somehow into the story. Remarkably rich.
The best performance in the whole film (and that’s saying something). Peter Capaldi peerless as the rascally Mr Micawber. (Source: FilmNation Entertainment).
Extraordinary casting.
There’s a very striking diversity to the casting of this movie. It had me going “Wha?? Who??” while watching. Because the roles are cast without reference to the demographics of the time and – crucially – to the relationship between the characters. It comes as a (pleasant) surprise to find Dev Patel cast as Copperfield: something I bet Patel never expected to find on his CV! Then the mother of Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard) turns up as Nigerian-born actress Nikki Amuka-Bird (who is fabulous). Benedict Wong also turns up as legal director Mr Wickfield. Dickensian purists might object. But I found this refreshingly different and much to be welcomed.
Sarah Crowe has won a number of awards for her casting of the film and a BAFTA nomination too. And well deserved, since she pulls in a truly stellar ensemble cast. As well as those mentioned above, we also have Hugh Laurie as the addled Mr Dick; Tilda Swinton as Betsey Trotwood; Anna Maxwell Martin as Mrs Strong; Paul Whitehouse as Daniel Peggotty; and Gwendoline Christie as the evil Mrs Murdstone. Even Daisy May Cooper (from TV’s “This Country”) turns up and is particularly effective as Peggoty – the housemaid and friend to Copperfield. And casting Morfydd Clark in a second role as the scatty love interest Dora Spenlow is also both brilliant and provocative.
With such a wealth of talent on show, it’s difficult to pull out specific performances. This is a movie that genuinely deserved to make the SAG Ensemble award list.
Donkey Alert! (I feel the same way about bloody herons). Mr Dick (Hugh Laurie), Copperfield (Dev Patel) and Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton). (Source: FilmNation Entertainment).
A restrained Iannucci.
When I saw that the director of this was Armando Iannucci, I raised an eyebrow. For the subject matter seemed to be at right angles to the normal satirical thrust of the director. But the guy behind “The Thick of It” and “The Death of Stalin” reigned in his most satirical barbs and – together with his regular collaborative screenwriter Simon Blackwell – turned the movie into a delightfully quirky telling of the story. I felt that there was something of the Guy Ritchie “Sherlock Holmes” behind the very effective use of the cutting and on screen handwriting.
In that cutting, many of the scene transitions are masterfully done. So a special shout-out to the film editors Mick Audsley and Peter Lambert here. A memorable example is a flashback in the “boat house” where a background tarpaulin blows away to reveal Steerforth on horseback in France: simply breathtaking.
Director Armando Iannucci at work. (Source: Yahoo Movies web site).
It’s Dickens but not as we know it.
This was a refreshing movie. Endlessly innovative and entertaining. It makes me even possibly want to revisit trying to read the book again! Highly recommended.
If you are wondering “would it have made my Top 10 for 2020“…. sorry Wonder Woman, but I think it certainly would and should have done.
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXh53I-Sdsk .
