Drawing a direct line between Charles Dickens and Arguydo Iannucci is not difficult. In each, there is a hobby for the fragility and absurd huguy, and above all, the wealth of the people. No one filled the pages with an animated cast of characters like Dickens, so who better to photograph “David Copperfield” than the guy in the numerous sets of “Veep,” “In the Loop” and “Stalin’s Death”?
In his third film as a director, after his farce of clumsy and bloody struggles of force in the Kremlin, Iannucci resorted to Dickens’ ultimate autobiographical novel with the same zeal that in the past he reserved for political parody. “David Copperfield’s Personal Story” is one of the most vivid, colorful and whimsical Victorian dramas you’ll probably see. It’s a new air-breathing film, which is nothing to be said in the 700-page e-book adaptations.
Iannucci, known for his improvisation flavor and swear-filled levees, obviously discovers Dickens a Sympathetic with a penchant for the language and taste of the crowds. In many ways, they make an intelligent combination, with Iannucci’s more anarchic and free flavor that animates the spirit and quirks of Dickens’s book.
And just like the absurdly deep bank of “Veep,” the cast made a difference. Dev Patel effectively plays Copperfield, once out of his training years (as a child, he is played by the young and desirable Jairaj Varsani and Ranveer Jaiswal), with his eyes wide open, still alive from the world around him, sometimes quite bewildered through him. However, the film largely belongs to the entire cast, adding Tilda Swinton, as David Betsey Trotwood’s aunt; Hugh Laurie as a mentally ill, obsessed with King Charles I, Mr. Dick; Peter Capaldi as Wilkins Micawber avoiding creditors; Rosalind Eleazar as the romantic interest Agnes Wickfield; Benedict Wong as Mr. Wickfield, who roars with wine; Ben Whishaw as a plot by Uriah Heep.
The performers, a clearly multicultural cast, rise significantly to the dynamism of the film, jointly making an irrefutable argument in favor of colorblind casting, for those who want it.
But while “David Copperfield’s Personal Story” helps maintain a fast and frantic speed as he ventures into Copperfield’s life, Iannucci and his co-teacher Simon Blackwell organize the film into chapters so different that the film looks more like a litany of scenes than a young man’s dramatic evolution. Some sections are larger than others. The episode with Laurie and Swinton in their country house, flying kites and hunting donkeys, is so clever that you need a full movie of them.
But if Iannucci’s gift for general interaction has a drawback, is to place what is intended to be “a non-public story” less from Copperfield’s first-person perspective. You leave enjoying safe elements that feel the scope of a story.
But we’ll probably all take, fortunately, an adaptation of Dickens that could be too funny, too crazy, too sentimental. For Iannucci, whose portraits of the afterlife and politics were not exactly the subject of idealism, it is also a film of exuberant optimism that celebrates the important strength of art and eccentricity. Who couldn’t use some of that now?
“The Personal Story of David Copperfield,” a Fox Searchlight release, is ranked as PG through the Motion Picture Association of America for its thematic content and brief violence. Running time: 120 minutes. Two and a four-star part.
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Follow screenwriter Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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