The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

We liked a lot this retelling of the classic story from riches to rags to riches to rags etc. I call it Charles Dickens as interpreted by Lewis Carroll, with madness and humor scattered throughout the opulence and squalor. In "colourblind" casting, Ranveer Jaiswal and Dev Patel, who are of East Indian descent, play David as a boy and an adult, Benedict Wong (Chinese-English) plays Mr. Wickfield, and Rosalind Eleazar (English) and Nikki Amuka-Bird (Nigerian), who are Black, play daughter Agnes Wickfield and Mrs. Steerforth, the mother of one of David's white schoolmates, respectively. And the madcap performances of white people Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, and Peter Capaldi add much, as well as Ben Whishaw's  creepy Uriah Heep, just to name a few.

As big fans of the work of director/co-writer Armando Iannucci (I usually describe him as a Scotsman with an Italian name), we were looking forward to this movie since we started seeing trailers earlier this year. But it was released only in theatres in August and we did not risk attending. It can now be rented on iTunes and Prime, to name a few. Simon Blackwell co-wrote the script. Not having read the original 1850 novel, neither Jack nor I can comment on its accuracy, but, according to Wikipedia, it's pretty much there.

The colorful cinematography is credited to Zac Nicholson, the lavish production design to Cristina Casali, and the luxurious costumes to Suzie Harman and Robert Worley.

I'm streaming Christopher Willis' stirring music via my subscription to Apple Music and it can be heard for free on Spotify.

Patel was last blogged for Lion, Swinton for The Dead Don't Die, Laurie for Tomorrowland, Capaldi and Blackwell for In the Loop (my second favorite Iannucci project after the series Veep), Whishaw for Mary Poppins Returns, and Iannucci and Willis for The Death of Stalin, on which Nicholson, Casali, and Harman had the same jobs as they did here.

We're with Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 92%, on this one, and not its rotten audiences at 53, and watched it December 1, 2020.