No. 45. (2020) A PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD. August 3rd.

 

Film No. 45 (2020)  August 3rd.  7:10 PM  PALACE  Raine Square, Perth City. 

"You had nothing, then you had something, and now you got nothing again. So sounds to right you'll have something again." (Mrs Micawber tells David how it is, part way through the condensed story).

Do you remember those Reader's Digest condensed versions of well known novels? Any cinema depiction of a Dickens novel is going to need some form of condensing, but this version unabashedly does it as an art form. 

David (Dev Patel) is first seen at a lectern as a thirty something addressing an audience in an intimate setting. He's summarizing his life so far, basically as Dickens coloured it. And what a life it has been. From here, for two hours, we join the festival that is life as David. It is an unconventional but most colourful, riotous, compassionate, with smatterings of unkindness, roller-coaster of a narrative. Patel deals up a performance equal to anything he has done previously. Then there is Peter Capaldi's Micawber, Tilda Swinton's, Joyce Grenfeld, the mean-spirited Uriah Heep played by Ben Whishaw and finally Mr Dick brilliantly captured by Hugh Laurie.  

The unconventional slant these accomplished actors put on their iconic characters is worth the price of a ticket alone. In these dreary times this fun film is the real package. Director Armando Iannucci was at the seat of creating The Death of Stalin, Veep and The Thick of It so the pedigree was always here. He has taken his witty musings to a new level.

 

And if you are not familiar with this Dickens classic then here might be the perfect place to start. Don't go expecting a conventional retell. This is better; much better!  10GUMS.