I watched this film with my Mum on Friday of last week and I absolutely adored it. I have never actually read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, however the piece of cinema was thoroughly charming to watch. Dev Patel was excellently cast as Mr. Copperfield himself and added a wonderful warmth and depth to the character. Hugh Laurie as Mr Dick is thoroughly charming to watch, particularly in the scenes where he is flying his kite.
Peter Capaldi brings some mischief to the table with his performance as Mr Mcawber. Aneurin Barnard (who is also in my favourite film of all time – Hunky Dory) is excellent as James Steerforth, a University student who is selfish and doesn’t believe he is good enough for anyone, he also has a gorgeous singing voice which can be heard when he is singing shanty’s in the film. Daisy May Cooper and Paul Whitehouse bring humour and a touching sentiment to the film by playing Peggotty and Mr. Peggotty. Ben Whishaw is strangely good at playing a bad, evil plotting Uriah Heap which is only unusual as I was so used to him playing characters such as Q from Skyfall and Paddington Bear.
Darren Boyd was perfect for the part of Edward Murdstone and as soon as he came on screen it was obviously he was a horrible evil person. Tilda Swinton was outstanding in her role as Betsey Trotwood, Copperfield’s extravagant, unusual Aunt. Perhaps my second favourite character after David Copperfield was however, Dora Spenlow who was delightful to watch, particularly the scenes with her dog, Morfydd Clark was hilarious to watch as Dora and one of the funniest scenes in the film had to be when she spoke as if she was her dog (Jip) and Dev Patel as David Copperfield pretended to be a talking apple tree. A 4 stars out of 5 for this one as I was slightly unsure of some of the casting and whether it was necessarily all great for the film, however I would 100% recommend going to see it if you haven’t yet and I promise you won’t be dissapointed.
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