Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Armando Iannucci, Searchlight Pictures, PG 119 Minutes.
Scottish director Armando Iannucci (‘The Death of Stalin’) in only his third feature film has provided a somewhat disappointing insight into the life of David Copperfield with his modern take on Charles Dickens classic semi-autobiographical masterpiece.
The story is set in the 1840’s and chronicles David Copperfield’s life beginning with his unhappy childhood before navigating himself through a chaotic world that eventually leads him becoming a storyteller and celebrated writer.
As an adolescent David (Dev Patel – Hotel Mumbai’) is raised by his mother Clara (Morfydd Clark – ‘Crawl’) and nanny Peggoty (Daisy May Cooper – TV’s ‘This Country’) before his abusive stepfather Mr Murdstone (Darren Boyd – TV’s ‘Fortitude’) sends him to stay with Peggoty’s family.
Discontented in working for Murdstone in his factory and then boarding with the unscrupulous Mr Micawber (Peter Capaldi – TV’s‘Dr Who’) David is determined to leave his monotonous life of drudgery following the death of his mother.
He subsequently escapes to the home of his wealthy aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton – ‘Doctor Strange’) and companion Mr Dick (Hugh Laurie – ‘Mr Pip’).
It is with his aunt Betsey where he finally finds some solace after she and Mr Dick adopt David sending him to an academy to secure a formal education to enable him to become an author and a gentleman.
David now embarks on a series of adventures including one in which he endeavours to retrieve his aunt’s stolen fortune from the scheming Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw-‘The Danish Girl’) achieving great success after a period of time.
In his attempt to replicate the success with his second production of ‘The Death of Stalin’ Iannucci’s biographical storyline is instead lacking in coherence and further exacerbated by a complicated plot leaving the impression of directorial inexperience.
The saving grace for Iannucci’s drama would have to be the pleasing period costumes and settings as well as an impressive cast portraying the range of Dickens’ characters particularly Swinton, Laurie and Capaldi.
As much as one would have enjoyed seeing the chronicled life of Copperfield-one of Dickens’ greatest characters-regrettably this did not happen with Patel only providing a reasonable portrayal of David Copperfield compared to his brilliant performance in ‘Lion’.
Vic’s Verdict: 2 ½ Stars
