the personal history of david copperfield by charles dickens

When Murdstone and his dictator of a sister Jane (Gwendoline Christie) tell David his mom has died, it turns into a Monty Python sketch. The film has him running around like a hamster on a wheel, rarely getting to sit down and take a breath. Here, although he’s the straight man to a Rolodex of wackos, he gets to show off his strong comic chops. Hugh Laurie, Dev Patel and Tilda Swinton. That’s a shame because he is remarkably versatile, more so than slightly younger hotshots such as Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges, and off-the-charts likable.

With all the flourishes, you still care a ton about David’s fate: Patel is a perpetually underrated actor who tends to be ignored for bigger co-stars (Nicole Kidman in “Lion”) or subsumed by the movie he’s in (“Slumdog Millionaire”).

Everywhere the now adult David (Dev Patel) lands, he is unwittingly absorbing colorful anecdotes for the book he hopes to write one day.Īnd that best summarizes Iannucci and screenwriter Simon Blackwell’s style: What’s going on inside a writer’s brilliant, bonkers brain? Dev Patel in “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” Searchlight Pictures After bolting out of that den of cruelty, he is shuffled, by force or by choice, to eccentrics, knaves and pretty blond airheads. Murdstone (Darren Boyd), who sends the kid off to work in his London factory. Little David (Jairaj Varsani) has his Victorian England childhood abruptly snatched away when his widowed mother marries the evil Mr. That’s because Iannucci’s film realizes that, when you spend much of your days living in hell, you still need some R&R. Generally, Dickens brings to mind soot, Scrooge and a hungry child saying, “Please sir, can I have some more?” Yet this warped tale of a scrappy boy hustling through life as he’s passed along from home to home is fun as hell. However, the many, many liberties Scottish director Armando Iannucci takes with Charles Dickens’ story - from flashback projections on walls to a newfound farcical sense of humor - are what makes this film such an unexpected joy to watch. Teens going back to school: Do not watch the movie “The Personal History of David Copperfield” for class in lieu of reading the book. Rated PG (thematic material and brief violence).

The personal history of david copperfield by charles dickens