The Personal History of David Copperfield

2020 • 119 minutes
3.4
43 reviews
92%
Tomatometer
PG
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Dev Patel leads an ensemble cast of talented stage and screen actors from across the world in this lavish, tongue-in-cheek reimagining from Searchlight Pictures of Charles Dickens' classic story. After suffering through his earlier life as an impoverished orphan, things take an intriguing turn for David Copperfield (Patel) when he meets up with his outrageous, well-to-do aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton). Following a new trajectory, Copperfield embraces danger, treachery, romance, and ultimately the chance to shine as a writer in Victorian England. Directed by Armando Iannucci with a screenplay by Iannucci and Simon Blackwell based on Dickens' novel, The Personal History of David Copperfield also stars Aneurin Barnard, Peter Capaldi, Morfydd Clark, Daisy May Cooper, Rosalind Eleazar, Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw and Paul Whitehouse.
Rating
PG

Ratings and reviews

3.4
43 reviews
David Diez
July 2, 2023
The movie is chaotic and incoherent. Dialogue is all over the place. There is no character development, and most of the characters and acting is absurd to the point that it's impossible to be immersed in the story. My wife and I, who have relatively different tastes, both hated this movie. When she asked if I wanted to stop watching halfway through, I felt great relief. We only stop watching movies about 1% of the time, so this movie is in an "elite" club, I guess.
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Hannah Brady
November 21, 2020
I read and loved the book, so I was a bit disappointed with the movie. They condensed a lot of the story, which I expected, but they also changed several major characters in subtle but important ways. It's never really fair to compare the book and the movie, so it's difficult for me to be impartial, but I think if they had been truer to the characters I would have enjoyed it more.
49 people found this review helpful
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paulhead
December 16, 2020
Let's take a classic and shove PC down your throat. Classics are called classics for a reason. How are you gonna take a period piece and make everyone every ethnicity and color as if it were toady? I think I'll remake Roots and make half the slaves Irish, Mexican and Pilipino.
15 people found this review helpful
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