The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

2019 PG 119 Minutes

Drama | Comedy

A fresh and distinctive take on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Personal History of David Copperfield, set in the 1840s, chronicles the life of its iconic title character...

Overall Rating

7 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review

  • WHAT I LIKED: The Personal History of David Copperfield is a delightfully snappy whistle-stop tour through Dicken's source novel that will leave you both beaming and slightly wide-eyed.
    Rather than condensing the story down for the big screen to meditate over individual moments, writer Simon Blackwell and director Armando Lannucci have decided to pack it all in and chop through the character's entire life story at breakneck speed. That could have easily been an exhausting and numbing experience, but a combination of satirical whit, a set of captivating performances and some brilliant editing makes it all extremely enjoyable instead.

    Indeed, on the one hand the are lots of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments to keep everything ticking over, as Lannuccini takes the tropes of whimsical period dramas and turns them on their heads with sarcastic jokes and subversion of cinematic techniques (for example, one hilarious sequence sees the usually romantic, out-of-focus camera walk as the view of a baby Copperfield watching people blow rasberries in his face). Then there's the performances from this stellar cast who all not only perform their comedic roles well, but also fit their parts perfectly and make even the briefest of screen-times count and build engaging characters. Couple that with the genius editing which creatively sees scenes change to the next through theatre-like set-changes and you've got yourself a very enjoyable, light-hearted romp that could have easily collapsed under the weight of its own story.

    WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Because it has so much story to get through, there's not the time to build serious emotional attachment to any of the characters, or even Copperfield himself. That wouldn't have been such a problem had it been as funny as Luannuchini's 'Death of Stalin,' but this isn't supposed to be as flat-out a comedy as that by any means.

    VERDICT: A film with an awful lot to get through, 'The Personal History of David Copperfield,' whisks along at a fair old pace, and even if that means it's not possible to build real emotional engagement with the characters, it's kept from collapse by the humour, creative editing, and a set of brilliantly engaging performances.