The Personal History of David Copperfield

This is a gentle take on Charles Dickens’ lengthy and partly autobiographical novel. The story of poverty giving way to success, and falling in love - not to mention debtors prisons and harshly cruel characters is turned into a light comedy by none other than Armando Iannuccu: a man known for satirising politics of a decade or more ago, or the Death of Stalin. The film is also curious because it’s Dev Patel’s second consecutive work located in the East of England: specifically Great Yarmouth and Bury St Edmunds.

Patel is a very likeable Copperfield: a character synonymous with Dickens even to the point where he stands at a stage and reads at the beginning and end. This framing device echoes Dickens’ own public performances. Most people will have read the massive novel in serial form though, and presentations of it usually have lengthy running times. Iannucci has cut the story to its elements though, and this is a great move. You’d have to be a poe-faced purist to not enjoy the resulting movie, even if it wears its quirkiness very fully.

This is all about performance: Tilda Swinton’s eccentric, donkey-hating Betsy Trotwood (David’s aunt) and Hugh Laurie as Mr Dick—insanely obsessed with Charles I and also handwriting (it pays off).  Ben Wishaw has a bowl haircut to play an especially oily Uriah Heap. He is unrecognisable.

However this film belongs to Peter Capaldi as Wilkins Micawber. Capaldi has adopted a Dickensian cockney accent to play a classic Dickens character: a man who is endlessly put-upon but relentlessly happy and optimistic. He plays a concertina—not very well but still—until it eventually has to be pawned until David Copperfield returns and saves Micawber and his family towards the end of the film. Comparing this character to Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It is almost under-selling what a terrific performance it is, and how great Capaldi is—he has done far more than just play a sweary political operative.

Somehow this adaptation is modern as well as a version of Victorian literature. The decision to ignore the race of actors and just have them play Dickens’ archetypes ought not wind up audiences in 2020. This is a fun film - and maybe there should be more re-imagined classics!