THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD : Wednesday 29th January 2020

I saw the 'THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD' at The Open Air Cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Point on Sydney Harbour earlier this week. Based on the eighth book by Charles Dickens and first published in 1850, here Director, Co-Producer and Co-Writer for the screen adaptation Armando Iannucci brings us this British and American Co-Produced comedy drama film based on that acclaimed mid-Victorian era novel. Iannucci is the Scottish satirist, Writer, Director, and Radio Producer whose previous feature film credits include 2009's 'In The Loop', and 2017's 'The Death of Stalin' most recently. Costing US$16M to make, the film saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the UK last week, and not in Australia until late March and the US until early May, and has generated mostly favourable Reviews.

The film opens up with the adult David Copperfield (Dev Patel) standing on a theatre stage at a lectern beginning his recital of his life story up to that point. His narration starts at the very beginning, that of his birth shortly after the death of his father at the tender age of 29, leaving his loving mother Clara Copperfield (Morfydd Clark) heavily in labour, with Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) as the housemaid running around in a blind panic providing very little worthwhile assistance. Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) meanwhile rocks up to the house and begins taking over the proceedings absolutely convinced that Clara is giving birth to girl. Trotwood is David's great-aunt on his fathers side, and has a dislike of boys. She storms out of the house after hearing that David's mother has had a son, rather than the daughter to whom she had every intention to be the godmother. And so as the young David Copperfield (Jairaj Varsani) grows up in a secure family unit, he begins writing down and drawing his life experiences, observations and memories on odd scraps of paper which he guards with his life almost.

By the time young David Copperfield is seven or eight years of age, his mother Clara has married the sinister, harsh and uncaring Edward Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who has moved into the Copperfield family home with his equally bleak, domineering and demanding sister Jane Murdstone (Gwendoline Christie), who plans to renovate and refurbish the household and teach the young Copperfield boy a thing or two about manners, etiquette and education. Things go somewhat awry for young Copperfield when he is asked to recite from a book, but is unable to do so because he has double vision which blurs the printed words on the page. His new father figure, manhandles him up to his bedroom, where he beats the young boy like a disobedient dog. Copperfield retaliates but in return is sent away to a wine bottling factory in London owned by the Murdstone's.

While there he is accommodated by Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and his long suffering yet fiercely loyal and trusting wife Emma Micawber (Bronagh Gallagher) and their band of children who do everything they can to keep their creditors at bay, the bailiffs from taking away all their meagre worldly possessions, and walk the financial tightrope every day. But young Copperfield is happy in Micawber's company, and relishes in his London accent and phraseology, which he records on his scraps of paper and keeps in a tin on the lid of which he has scratched a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral.

One day when Copperfield is in his late teens and has now grown into Dev Patel, we see him still working in the bottling factory but having graduated to hold some level of responsibility. He is visited by Edward and Jane Murdstone with the news that his mother has died and that she was buried last Saturday, to avoid any fuss. Copperfield rebels against this news, smashes many of the precious bottles, and runs out of the place never to be seen again. He walks back to Yarmouth - the home town of his mother and his great-aunt Betsey, having been robbed along the way, and having not eaten for days.

Being now grown up into a handsome young adult Betsey hardly recognises him, but when they are reintroduced she welcomes him in, and there he meets Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie) who possesses childish traits and an obsession with work on his memoir from which he is constantly distracted by thoughts of King Charles' head. Copperfield soon learns that that like him, Mr. Dick notes down all his musings, quotations and scribblings on odd scraps of paper which Copperfield persuades him to attach to a kite in order that his mind can be free of all the clutter clogging his memory. Mr. Dick thinks this is a wonderful idea and is promptly seen flying his kite at every opportunity.

Enter the somewhat pickled financial advisor to Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, a Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong) and his daughter Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar). Using funds freed up by Betsey, Copperfield is sent off to a private albeit somewhat run down school for young gentlemen near Canterbury in order to continue and finish his education. There he meets James Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard) and the pair strike up a strong friendship. He also meets at the school a member of the staff, Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw) - known for his cloying humility, insincerity and obsequiousness.

While at his graduation, he is introduced to Mr. Spenlow (Matthew Cottle) a lawyer, who has a job for Copperfield as a Proctor in his law firm, and who also has a daughter Dora (Morfydd Clark again), whom Copperfield is instantly attracted to. She is quite beautiful, but childish too and is more interested in playing with her pet dog, Jip, than in understanding the advances of Copperfield it seems. But he persists, taken in by her beauty and her innocent personality.

Meanwhile, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick have had their home repossessed and all of their investments as handled by Mr. Wickfield have gone belly up and as a result are now homeless, destitute and financially ruined. They move into Copperfield's London apartment provided for him by his employer but this proves untenable. In the intervening period Uriah Heep has manipulated his way into Mr. Wickfield's broken business and has firmly established himself as an equal partner, with a particular axe to grind against Copperfield. Heep sets up Copperfield, Trotwood and Mr. Dick in a run down part of London in a less than adequate and very cramped apartment.

Copperfield decamps back to Yarmouth with Steerforth to visit the seaside home of Peggotty, her husband Daniel Peggotty (Paul Whitehouse), their orphaned nephew Ham Peggotty (Anthony Welsh) and his fiancee Emily (Aimee Kelly). They all live in their cramped upturned fishing boat on the beach by the waters edge with the ageing and in ill health Mrs. Gummidge (Rosaleen Linehan). One day, feeling somewhat sorry for himself Steerforth bids farewell to Copperfield and then promptly elopes with Emily on board a rented sailing boat. Emily it seems wants more out of life than Ham can offer her. Ham vows to track Emily down now matter where she is and how long it takes.

Back in London, Agnes has uncovered evidence that Uriah Heep massaged his way into her fathers business by fraudulent and nefarious means, and armed with this evidence she, Copperfield, Trotwood, Mr. Dick, Mr. Micawber and Mr. Wickfield confront the unsuspecting Heep in his offices, where he comes undone. Peggotty in the meantime has heard of the whereabouts of Emily, and that she is in London. They track her down and learn that Steerforth has since deserted her. They take her back to Yarmouth with a storm on the horizon and learn that Steerforth is making his way back there aboard the sailing boat from France. Just off shore, the boat is caught in a squall and Steerforth is washed overboard and drowns.

Back at their ramshackle apartment Copperfield is busy writing his autobiography with Dora looking on. She says that she should be written out of his book as she does not fit in. She turns around and leaves. Sometime later Copperfield and Agnes are reunited and subsequently married - she had always held a candle for him although had never outwardly admitted doing so. With Trotwood and Mr. Dick reinstated in their country home, Copperfield returns their too having published his book and basking in the wealth it has brought him with all his friends around him.

In 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' Director Armando Iannucci has assembled a fine cast of English acting talent, from the lead with Dev Patel to the upstanding supporting cast of Swinton, Laurie, Whishaw, Whitehouse, Capaldi, Wong, Clark, Christie, Eleazar and Barnard whose diverse characters are all fleshed out enough to feel invested in them. The production values are also top notch, and here Iannucci has turned a classic story of some 170 years ago into a modern retelling that still resonates as much today as it did mid-19th Century - class inequality, the rich and poor divide, cultural and ethnic acceptance, the role of men versus women in society, and the daily struggles that had to be endured at the hands of an ever increasing modern world. All of this is underpinned by a tale that combines plenty of wit, whimsy, charm and creative storytelling that helps propel the film along at a good pace and ties up all the strands effectively at the end.

'The Personal History of David Copperfield' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-