Cultural Dessert

'The Personal History of David Copperfield’ by Armando Iannucci

7 February 2020

On Sunday we were at the Odeon in Milton Keynes to see ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ - Armando Iannucci’s new film adaptation of the Dickens novel. It’s a sunny film that’s lots of fun. Dev Patel’s David Copperfield is an aspiring writer narrating the story of his life. He watches in on his own birth – reminding me of ‘A Cock and Bull Story’ - Michael Winterbottom’s 2005 film adaptation of ‘Tristram Shandy’. Armando Iannucci’s  ‘David Copperfield’ is, unsurprisingly, very funny with some great comic cameos. There are a few nods to Dickens’ social commentary but this is primarily a jolly yarn. Dev Patel displays an impressive talent for accents and mimicry – as does Jairaj Varsani as the young David Copperfield. Peter Capaldi, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton and Ben Wishaw are all wonderful in their larger-than-life performances. I particularly liked Daisy May Cooper as Peggotty. And Morfydd Clark’s Dora Spenlow was infuriatingly lovely! But the most Armando Iannucci scenes were those in the Murdstone factory office with the words of Victor McGuire’s hoarse Creakle being parroted for clarity by Peter Singh’s Tungay – which could have been straight from ‘The Thick of It’.

Labels: Film

posted by Robin Simpson @ 5:18 pm