The Personal History of David Copperfield
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: August 28, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 27, 2020
Restructuring some story arcs and jettisoning others, Iannucci and his collaborator, Simon Blackwell, have created a souped-up, trimmed-down adaptation so fleet and entertaining that its cleverness doesn’t immediately register. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 26, 2020
If ever a match were made in cine-literary heaven it would be Charles Dickens and Armando Iannucci, each a master of probing social criticism, slashing wit and floridly besotted love of language. Read full review
100
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 22, 2020
Iannucci’s cleverest touch may be that casting, giving a wonderful cross-section of British acting the chance to say those wonderful words, reclaim Dickens from the “Masterpiece Theater” swells. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJan 26, 2020
Astutely amplifying the absurdist – and remarkably modernist – elements of his source, Iannucci and co-writer Simon Blackwell conjure a surreal cinematic odyssey that is as accessible as it is intelligent and unexpected. Read full review
100
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 22, 2020
Against the odds, Iannucci has delivered a minor miracle. Somehow or other, he has managed to touch all familiar elements over 119 consistently delicious minutes without allowing the slightest whiff of compromise. Read full review
100
Screen DailyAllan HunterSep 10, 2019
The lynchpin of the whole enterprise is a terrific star turn from Dev Patel, who has never been better. The energy and physicality of his performance is a constant delight; a tangle of arms and legs, he plays the knockabout farce with the timing and agility of a Chaplin. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 27, 2020
It’s both an overstuffed box of postmodern delights and a classically Dickensian repository of whimsy and charm. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreAug 26, 2020
There’s a resilient buoyancy running through The Personal History of David Copperfield that proves irresistibly moving by the end of its journey. Its protagonist weathers hardships and cruelties in addition to benefiting from acts of kindness, and yet he never loses his capacity to be fascinated by people, a quality that’s comforting without feeling cloying. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 10, 2019
Armando Iannucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield turns the author's well-loved autobiographical epic into a fast-moving yarn, sometimes hilarious and always entertaining. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 28, 2020
“Copperfield” is a grand, long novel, and in reducing it to 120 minute scale, Iannucci has hewn it to something almost anecdotal. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiAug 27, 2020
The entire cast is wickedly good, and their overblown characters are what keep the Dickens spirit alive. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 26, 2020
Armando Iannucci (creator of HBO’s “Veep”) transforms Charles Dickens’ masterful but often dour and cumbersome 624-page Victorian novel into a brilliant piece of entertainment that often plays like “Alice in Wonderland” as interpreted by Monty Python. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 25, 2020
Tilda Swinton’s a tightly wound riot as Copperfield’s snappish aunt, living seaside and fending off stray donkeys while her serenely mad lodger Mr. Dick resides in his own universe. He is played by Hugh Laurie, beautifully, as if Bertie Wooster had taken a few wrong turns. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekAug 13, 2020
The Personal History of David Copperfield is a comedy that washes over you with its warmth. Iannucci’s fans should be prepared to encounter the director in an unusual and infestious good mood. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 31, 2020
To a remarkable extent, the new movie is full of cheer. It feels boisterous, bustling, and, at times, perilously close to a romp. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 26, 2020
This teeming film sometimes bursts at the seams, but it’s abound with an exuberant energy that honors Dickens without embalming him in the literary past. It’s irresistible. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentJan 20, 2020
A breezy, brilliant treat. Iannucci may have softened the bite of his comedy but replaces it with something remarkably optimistic and buoyant, telling a story as joyously relevant as it was a century-and-a-half ago. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 3, 2019
Everything rattles and zings like a pinball machine, and it’s a bracing, entertaining, richly satisfying experience. Read full review
80
Vanity FairKatey RichSep 10, 2019
It’s the sort of movie that gives nearly every character a thoughtful closeup before, somewhat fantastically, bringing most of them back together at the end for a tender sendoff. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 10, 2019
Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield comes across as a bright and jaunty corrective to the dour and stuffy Dickens adaptations that have come before. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 10, 2019
Throughout the film, the cast engage in so many wonderfully measured scenes of mayhem that the fun they’re clearly having radiates from the screen. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumSep 7, 2019
A fleet-footed and boisterously enjoyable Dickens adaptation that breathes new life into a well-worn story. A winning Dev Patel leads a highly amusing cast. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAug 26, 2020
The entire cast gleefully digs into their parts with a relish not seen in an ensemble in quite some time. Even my screening partner, who has a notorious aversion to British period pieces, was helplessly beguiled by The Personal History of David Copperfield. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCary DarlingSep 3, 2020
It all makes for a very different type of summer-movie experience, one far removed from superheroes and special effects. Best of all, you need not have read a word of Dickens to be captivated by the world that Iannucci has created. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyMary SollosiAug 29, 2020
The film lacks the atmosphere of David Lean's "Great Expectations" or the weighty iconography of any one of a number of "Christmas Carols," but a sincere affection for and understanding of the source material shines through in its wit and good nature. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 27, 2020
By taking a different road, Iannucci has provided something that captures the essence of David Copperfield without being constrained by every detail. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 10, 2019
The meta-fiction may be overdone, but that and the director’s feeling for tone create the expansive atmosphere in which a talented multiracial cast lead by Dev Patel can master everything from pure melodrama to high comedy. Read full review
75
TheWrapSteve PondSep 10, 2019
Iannucci has fun with the classic serial-turned-novel and throws in a bit of defiant color-blind casting for kicks, but it takes some getting used to a gentler, less biting Iannucci. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith UhlichSep 6, 2019
It’s not hard to parallel David/Dickens’s head-spinningly intricate descriptors with Iannucci’s own prodding, poetically vulgar rhetoric. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 28, 2020
Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield may not be perfect, but it is alive, at least partly because of its perceptive, jaunty casting and fine performances. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 10, 2019
While the act of gracefully condensing this big book into a coherent movie is indeed impressive, the truth is that said movie does end up feeling a bit like glorified cliff’s notes, albeit ones enlivened by Iannucci’s gift for volleying banter. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnSep 10, 2019
There’s much to be appreciated about the movie’s energetic pace, and the casting never fails to convince. But Iannucci’s restless scene transitions — rising curtains reveal new scenes, projected images provide in-scene flashbacks, and so on — confuse empty gimmicks for innovative narrative trickery. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 27, 2020
The Personal History of David Copperfield is one of the more lively, colorful and whimsical Victorian costume dramas you’re likely to see. It’s a movie flowing with fresh air, which isn’t something normally said of adaptations of 700-something-page books. Read full review
60
CineVueDaniel GreenJan 23, 2020
Despite its slightly televisual veneer and sporadic bouts of mawkishness, as far as British costume dramas go, The Personal History of David Copperfield is better than the majority. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 7, 2019
The Personal History of David Copperfield feels, to a large degree, like a writer’s stunt. If you’re in a mildly irreverent mood (like Iannucci himself), you won’t complain too loudly about that. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRobert DanielsSep 10, 2019
Unfortunately, Iannucci and Blackwell are so intent on making every quip funny, they lose the story. Read full review
58
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 10, 2019
Iannucci is picking and choosing our alignments for us with his desire for as much humor as possible. Devoid of the breadth necessary to make these characters more than comic relief, however, it becomes difficult to buy the pursuit of David’s victory above all others. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 27, 2020
This is largely Dickens as farce, which is occasionally fun—Peter Capaldi is a delightful Mr. Micawber, whose creditors are so insistent they try to yank his rug out from under his front door—but it often feels forced. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 27, 2020
Truth be told, though, the film, which Mr. Iannucci directed from a screenplay he wrote with Simon Blackwell, is blissed out on its own cleverness and ultimately exhausting. Read full review
More From This Movie

77 Critic Reviews

4.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL