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Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Diversity underlined but lacking in amiable tone

Film: The Personal History of David Copperfield

Cast: Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw, Peter Capaldi

Director: Armando Iannucci

Rating:  * * ½

Runtime: 119 mins

 

This colorful, mish-mashed representation of Charles Dickens’ grand semi-autobiographical novel published serially in 1849–50 and in book form in 1850, reduced to near 120 minute cinematic scale, may be considered a tribute to diversity but it doesn’t quite get the tone or temper of the book right. Scottish writer/director Iannucci has whittled down the wordy tome to an almost anecdotal representation depraved of wit or whimsy. The quirkiness of individual characters fails to lend humor to this rather boring literary adaptation. Armando Iannucci may have meant well with his ‘diverse’ casting choices but that’s also precisely why this work appears so blasé and unbecoming. 

 

Colored individuals portrayed as central characters in a fictionalized mid-19th-century England, may well be heralded as breaking away from the conventions and stereotypes but the believability gets hampered in the bargain. The story is told in the first person. The narrative opens with a well-into-adulthood-David Copperfield, looking back on his life. The opening sequence has Dev Patel’s adult David delivering his story in a theater. David is thereafter shown looking on as his mother gives birth to him. Born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, six months after the death of his father, he is being raised by his mother and her devoted housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. David, in lieu of his close bonding with Clara, gets to spend a few days with her brother and his orphaned niece Emily and nephew Ham but his seemingly impoverished carefree childhood gets skewered when on his return, he finds his mother married to a cruel, dominating Edward Murdstone and his home entrusted to the management of Murdstone’s rather perverse, perfectionist, sister. Unwilling to be tamed, Copperfield tries to forge his own path and in the process comes into contact with some intriguing characters.   

 

Through his novel Dickens allied early personal experiences -his work in a factory, his schooling and reading, and his years in reporting, into a successful money rich novel writing career. While Iannucci and co-scriptwriter Simon Blackwell stay true to those events they fail to lend them a cinematic weightage that could aid the viewer in finding something worthy to be ensnared by. Iannucci’s conventional literary adaptation form (though non-linear) is rather dry and devoid of an emotional connect.

 

Class, and dire economic straits, are glossed over by Zac Nicholson’s picturesque camerawork. The editing is strip happy while the ensemble acting is fairly competent. The souped-up believable production design and luxuriant visuals end-up looking self-indulgent because there is no fun to be had. This rather anemic combination of live theater and classic farce renders a creative, quirky, absorbing classic into an incredibly dull adaptation that fails to capture your imagination or heart. 

 

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