Teens Back to School: Do not watch the movie “The Personal History of David Copperfield” before class instead of reading the book. You will fail your exam.
The many, many freedoms that Scottish director Armando Iannucci takes with the story of Charles Dickens – from flashback projections on walls to a newly found farcical sense of humor – make this film such an unexpected joy to watch.
Overall, Dickens brings soot to mind, Scrooge and a hungry child say, “Please sir, can I have some more?” Yet this rapacious story of a frightened yearling boy who goes through life as he goes from house to house is fun as hell.
That’s because Iannucci’s movie realizes that if you live many of your days in hell, you still need some R&R.
Little David (Jairaj Varsani) abruptly deprives his Victorian English youth when his widowed mother marries the evil Mr. Murdstone (Darren Boyd), who sends the child away to work in his London factory. After bulging out of that hollow of cruelty, he is, by force or by choice, shoved into eccentrics, hugs and pretty blonde airheads. Wherever the now-adult David (Dev Patel) lands, he subconsciously absorbs colorful anecdotes for the book he hopes to write one day.
And that sums up the style of Iannucci and screenwriter Simon Blackwell best: What happens in a writer’s brilliant, bony brain?
With all the flourishing, you still worry a lot about David’s fate: Patel is an eternally underrated actor who tends to be ignored by bigger co-stars (Nicole Kidman in “Lion”) or submerged by the movie he’s in ( “Slumdog Millionaire”). That’s a shame, because he’s remarkably versatile, more than a few younger hotshots like Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges, and off-the-charts fun.
Here, although he is the right man for a Rolodex of wackos, he gets to see his strong comic chops. The film revolved around him like a hamster on a wheel, rarely sitting and breathing. When Murdstone and his dictator tell a sister Jane (Gwendoline Christie) that David’s mother has died, it turns into a Monty Python sketch.
The entire cast is goddamn good, and their remaining characters keep Dickens’ spirit alive.
The boss of Copperfield at the bottle factory is a spherical gent who rarely gets up and speaks in a slow pipe. Former Dr. Who Peter Capaldi plays Micawber, a notorious London debtor David stays with, as he is a peacock who does stand-up. I would not be surprised if Ben Whishaw, to advise him on the role of aspiring business climber Uriah, locked him up in a basement for a year. And Tilda Swinton does a great Tilda Swinton.
Every cast member is hilarious. Dickens will be LOL in his grave.
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