The Personal History of David Copperfield

Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, Festival 2009) reimagines Charles Dickens’ epic, autobiographical masterpiece as a curiously contemporary tragicomic adventure. An exuberant Dev Patel (The Man Who Knew Infinity, Festival 2015) sets an amiable tone as the eponymous hero enduring heartache, triumph, and every emotion in between on his way to becoming a writer in a delightfully multicultural 19th-century England. Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, and Ben Whishaw, offer indelible supporting turns in this sweeping dramedy rich in visual invention and buoyant wit.

“There’s been a dearth of successful big screen comedies in the past few years, with audiences rushing toward darker fare instead as a masochistic way of dealing with troubled times, but Iannucci’s joyous and crowd-pleasing tonic might well buck the trend. It’s a story that remains as witty and resilient as its main character and its charms, like David’s, remain impossible to resist.” –Benjamin Lee, The Guardian