The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)- BFI London Film Festival 2019

Review

119min

Genre:      Comedy, Drama

Director:   Armando Iannucci

Cast:        Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie…and more

Writers:    Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell and Charles Dickens

-Synopsis-

When his idyllic country childhood is abruptly ended by tragedy and the arrival of a callous step-family, an aspiring young author is bludgeoned by the harsh realities of life and learns the meaning of strife on the streets of early Victorian London, only to be rescued by eccentric estranged relatives and return to the formative path of gentlemanhood. But when once again faced with a destitution which threatens all the dear characters he’s gathered in his orbit, ‘David Copperfield’ faces the new architect of his misery to secure a future long struggled for.

Having captured the attention and admiration of audiences with his skewering of politics, history, the media and the ruling classes with his personal brand of sharp perceptive wit on both the big and small screens over the last two decades, British writer/director/producer Armando Iannucci decides to tune down the acidity and turn up the whimsy for his third directorial feature—defying our dark times with something more hopeful yet not blunting his satirical sword, and tackling the most personal work of Charles Dickens in his own inimitable way.

Young Jairaj Varsani stars as David Copperfield, a fatherless precocious boy living an idyllic existence in Suffolk with his ditsy but loving mother ‘Clara’ (Morfydd Clark), until reality bites with the arrival of his stern domineering step-father ‘Edward Murdstone’ (Darren Boyd) and his sinister sister ‘Jane’ (Gwendoline Christie), sending him into child labour in a London factory. Now a young man facing destitution and the end of his lodging with lyrical scoundrel ‘Mr. Micawber’ (Peter Capaldi) and his family, David (Dev Patel) finds refuge back in the countryside with his estranged aunt ‘Betsey Trotwood’ (Tilda Swinton) and her even more curious cousin ‘Mr. Dick’ (Hugh Laurie), sending him into higher education and the life of a gentleman under the wing of well-heeled new friend ‘Steerforth’ (Aneurin Barnard), but placing him on a collision course with the manipulative and ambitious ‘Uriah Heep’ (Ben Whishaw)—a relationship which will define his tumultuous time ahead, and that of the people around him.

One of the first things you will no doubt notice about this distinct adaptation of Dickens and the Copperfield story, which is hardly the first in TV or film, is that quite a few of the many idiosyncratic faces on show aren’t white, as Iannucci gives us as implausibly diverse and representative a vision of early 19th century Britain as you could imagine, sometimes to almost comedic effect, all adding to the flavour of an often whimsical and farcical affair—but most importantly sending a clear message that when it comes to telling this and many other stories, and in this way, it really shouldn’t be an issue.

The second thing you’ll notice is of course the copious comedy on show, as Iannucci and his regular veteran co-writer Simon Blackwell (In the Loop, Veep) take the humour already present in the Dickens novel and add oodles of quirky character comedy and farcical observational humour. They wisely take full advantage of the considerable comedy chops of the likes of Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi and Paul Whitehouse, while giving dramatic stars like Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw and of course Dev Patel just as much time in the comedy sun—providing them all the tools needed to gloriously bring to life an array of eccentric and memorable characters.

Yet there’s also plenty of pathos in the story, and poignancy inserted into the crevices between the comedy, adapted from not only from classic a coming-of-age tale about misfortune, change and growth, but one of preeminent ones of its time, as Iannucci and Blackwell stick relatively closely to the 1850 novel, albeit of course condensing it and omitting a couple of characters and a few experiences. This is also of course a tale of authors, and an ode to creativity, life experience and the writing process, often portrayed in overt and intricate visual form through David’s notes and etchings of his observations and inner thoughts.

Despite being attracted to the personal and whimsical tone of the tale, and the change of pace it provides for him, a satirist and filmmaker of Iannucci’s calibre can’t help but be drawn to its socio-political relevance too. And he doesn’t waste the opportunity to sharply frame Copperfield’s formative journey against the backdrop of a callous and exploitative British class system, doing so with bags of humour but also poignancy—dealing with themes like greed, homelessness and social status anxiety, and therefore giving the story a particularly timely resonance.

The film’s style credentials are impressive too, decorated with top-notch production designs and filmed largely with traditional techniques, while British cinematographer Zac Nicholson takes the vibrant and colourful period aesthetic he established for films like ‘The Death of Stalin’ and ‘All is True’ and applies it to early industrial revolution Victorian England—producing something which almost feels like a Wes Anderson vision of Dickens.

It’s not surprising that some of the reaction has been ambiguous and underwhelmed, as ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ doesn’t have the satirical spice or the skewering comedic edge of the director’s previous work—but that’s sort of the point, and clearly his intent in opting for a change of pace. And though the film may prove too earnest for those expecting a distinctly cutting Iannucci’s take on Dickens, or irk purists who resent him having the nerve to apply his style to a literary classic, for us it’s a well balanced comedy/drama which does justice to the Victorian author’s most personal work, while delivering barrels of laughs and a cavalcade of delightfully colourful characters to entertain across the generations . . . with a tale by writers, about writers and for writers.

The Bottom Line…

Part Victorian screwball comedy and part classic coming-of-age drama from one of its earliest and most illustrious proponents, ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ admirably combines Charles Dickens mastery with Armando Iannucci comedic flair and stylishly throws it onto a broad and earnest cinematic canvas—and what sticks is a breezy but thoroughly entertaining and socially relevant quirky character cavalcade to admire.

‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ is out on the 24th of January 2020 in the UK, and on the 8th of May in the US.

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