Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield is a relentlessly charming, joyous work of literary adaptation. Who knew that Iannuchi, known mainly for his mercilessly cynical political satires, would be the perfect person to adapt Charles Dickens? In face, this may end up being my favorite adaptation of his work, much of which has to do with Iannuchi remaining true to the spirit of the work (and its author) without being slavish to the text. The film’s almost breathless pacing (captured through the lightning fast cuts and overlapping transitions) as we careen from scene to scene echoes Dickens’s own writing method. And Iannuchi’s bent toward satire keeps the film from veering into Dickens’s more mawkish tendencies. It’s refreshing to see the film correct and even comment on some of the novel’s more troubling Victorian sensibilities by casting the same actress as both Copperfield’s mother and first love, remarking that both characters are awfully young (to be married or to be having children), and allowing the young love interest (who is destined to die in childbirth in the novel) to have a moment of meta-fictional agency and awareness. And these meta-fictional elements throughout the film that blend Copperfield’s life with that of Dickens’s, creates a rich and surprisingly moving tale of finding your place in the world. It may not be the complete or authoritative fifteen-hour miniseries adaptation Dickens purists are looking for, but it is one of the most successful transmutations of the novelist’s work onto the big screen.
