Film: 'The Personal History of David Copperfield'.

I thought I might like this. It achieved that and more. 
Armando Ianucci here directs his third major cinema feature and they are, for me, getting progressively better. I found 'In the Loop' (2009) rather baffling in that much of the dialogue was delivered so rapidly as to be largely indecipherable. His 'The Death of Stalin' (2017) a great improvement - and with 'Copperfield' here, which he co-writes, he hits a new high. 

It is, of course, based on Dickens' voluminous novel, which I must have read about half a dozen times (having read all his books at least three times each). This film is not one that will delight Dickens purists. I enjoyed it as there's enough to be able to easily relate to the original. All the 'contours' of David C's rise-and-fall life are here, together with most of the major characters - though if you watch while waiting for the famous lines Dickens put into their mouths you're likely to feel disappointed.

Set in mid-19th century London, the film boasts a quite remarkable large cast (entirely British, I think) ranging from well-known names to those I don't recall encountering before. But the very satisfying and most conspicuous feature of the cast is that no attempt is made to reflect what was surely Dickens' intention of having, as would have been assumed by all of his readers at that time, exclusively white-skinned characters. In this film a spectrum of complexions and racial ancestries is included, and most refreshing to see it is too. 
Though this might be the most visually obvious feature, each member of the cast was in some way different from the way I'd built a mental picture of them, not only in appearance but mannerisms too, though in no case straying too far outside the author's own character sketches. 

Stealing the film is Dev Patel as the (adult) title character in a role which fits him like a glove. In fact in every film he's appeared in to date he always seems at ease with the person he's creating, one of those rare chameleon-like actors who looks visibly comfortable no matter who he's playing - and he's not yet even 30!
The rest of the cast doesn't have a single weak ingredient - Tilda Swinton as David's hyperactive, fussy and garrulous aunt Betsy Trotwood, Hugh Laurie as the kite-flying Mr Dick, Peter Capaldi the eternal against-the-odds optimist Mr Micawber, Paul Whitehouse as Mr Peggoty (though there's no Barkis!) - then there's the sadistic, cane-wielding stepfather Mr Murdstone when David was a young boy (here played by Jairaj Varsani - wonderful) and his later best friend, Steerforth, a turncoat-to-be, he and Murdstone played by actors I didn't know -  and one of the most remarkable, Ben Whishaw (sporting a Beatles haircut!) as the schemingly unreliable Uriah Heep. Every one of them endlessly watchable.

Ianucci's direction is imaginative, his originality occasionally taking my breath away - in some respects reminding me of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam. There were moments to make me audibly laugh and even more which raised a smile.

I don't think it's a film for everyone. However, if you're one of those who finds Dickens 'stuffy', or the idea of any film of one of his books turns you off, this just may help you see delights in the writer's imaginations, even if liberties (some of them admittedly quite outlandish) have been taken with the original text. 
It would, I think, be unfair not to recognise that Ianuccui has here created something quite special..............7.5. 

(IMDb............6.4 - Rott.Toms........not available )