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Rating:  - David Copperfield is family entertainment of a high order.
The first half of David Copperfield was good enough, I think, to please Dickens himself. This is due in part to the excellent portrayal of young David by Daniel Radcliffe, who provides just the right amount of spunk and vulnerability to do justice to the character. Treavor Eve is also excellent as David's nemesis, his stepfather, Murdstone. Just a look from Eve's Murdstone is enough to frighten David first into silence and then, as he is being savagely beaten for failing his lessons, into instinctive rebellion, biting Murdstone's hand. For this crime David is sent to Murstone's blacking factory in London. The blacking factory is a dreadful place and would certainly have broken David's spirit and ruined his life if it were not for the introduction of Mr. Micawber, his guardian in London, exceptionally well played by the talented Bob Hoskins.
This great novel is filled with a variety of subplots, many of which are included in the film. Three that are worth mentioning are David's flight from the blacking factory and his journey to his Aunt Betsey Trotwood, beautifully performed by the great English actress Maggie Smith. Aunt Betsey takes David in and champions his cause in a dramatic scene where she throws out Murdstone and his sister Jane from her home. Aunt Betsey then takes David to live with a lawyer and his daughter Agnes and the lawyer's evil clerk Uriah Heep, who pretends to be humble yet never stops scheming to steal everything the lawyer owns. In another great scene, Macawber, now working for Heap, confronts the villain as a Heap of infamy. This dramatic encounter is the climax of the film. Lastly, another story worth mentioning concerns David's nanny Peggotty. She and her family are betrayed by Steerforth, a boy that befriended David in his first school and who saved him from the dreadful headmaster Mr. Creakle, wonderfully played by Ian McKellen.
Unfortunately, when David grows up the story loses some of its force and energy. The adult David, Ciaran McMenamin, is the weakest actor in the cast. Even so, the story is well dramatized that I found myself engaged from beginning to end.
David Copperfield is a long book and four hours is not quite enough time to do it justice, but what the producers have included is done well and will certainly give viewers a good sense of the exceptionally varied and entertaining cast of characters in a story, somewhat autobiographical, that Dickens himself considered his favorite and best work. This film is family entertainment of a high order. Highly recommended.
Rating:  - Part I excellent, Part II Good
I watched Part I with my 8 year old daughter. She absolutely loved it and so did I. It was so visual and captivating that she watched the whole 90 minutes in one go, even though she originally had said that she was only going to watch 30 minutes of it. I hope she will read the book in due time. I saw Part II by myself (I didn't let my daughter see it because I think she is too young to relate to it much). I think Part II was also very good although a bit choppier than the Part I (eg. the wickedness of Heep was not very fully developed). Overall though I still enjoyed the movie.
Rating:  - Mislead?
Being a fan of the classic by Dickens, (it is in my top ten), I was naturally inclined to want to see the movie versions of this wonderful work of literature.
Actaully I had seen one on A&E, and while I don't really remember much about it, I did enjoy it enough to have a desire to read the book. Ah, contentment. Nothing like a well written novel. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to read it out loud to my wife, something that we love to do with great works that are written in a style that just begs to be spoken. There is something about it that just brings an enrichment to the stories that can sometimes be missed otherwise.
Anyhow, after this treasured experience, we both wanted to see the A&E version. But try as I might, I couldn't find it released on DVD or VHS. So I turned to the altenatives. I read the reviews for this BBC version right here on Amazon, and I must say I was impressed. Almost every review was a good one, and much was said about how close this was to the book. The people who had seen this and the A&E version even told me this was much superior.
So I happily plunked down the money for this movie. We invited our friend Ian who had recently pleasured himself by reading the book. We watched. By the time it was over I was wishing that I hadn't read all those reviews. False hope and all that dashed nonsense. I also wished that I had seen this before reading the book. (I know that by saying this I am totally contradicting my review of Austen's book "Northanger Abbey", but in this case I was wrong.) Not that it is a bad movie, but like my wife said, "It was just a skeleton of the book".
So I shall give a list of the things I didn't like, followed by those that I did.
1. The movie just whizzed by from scene to scene, as if they were in a hury to get to the end. Three hours is three hours, but a good director, coupled with nice editing can make a movie feel smoother and seem longer, without giving you that ancy feeling you could be doing something else.
2. There were quite a few well written characters missing, or just having brief cameos. Some of the missing who were in my mind vital to the story: Traddle, Dora' two birdlike aunts, and Doctor and Mrs. Strong. Not so important, but still missed by me: The Old Soldier (Mrs. Markleham), Mr Omer, Mr. Joram, And the unforgetable Miss Mowcher.
3. The scene where everyone confronts Uriah Heep is way to short. It felt like it took all of about a minute, where as in the book it took up almost an entire chapter, fiiled with rich speech from all the characters, most notably Micawber, who couldn't say the name Heep without going almost into a fit of rage, while here he says Heep that way maybe twice, then mellowing out his tone for the rest of the scene.
4. I don't like how they split the DVD like you are watching it on PBS by having the credits halfway through, then you get to watch a preview of what you are going to watch in a few minutes, and then a rehash of what you just watched. Maddening!
Good points.
1. While there was a lot left out, they didn't deviate from the storyline hardly at all.
2. Seeing David's aunt tearing into the Murdstones was almost perfect.
3. Mr. Dick was just how I imagined him, especially in the kite flying scene with him twirling his cane in the air with his childish excitement. Seeing David's smile during this scene was very nice to.
4. Most notable performances: the young David (an awesome career lies ahead of this boy), Peggotty, Mr. Peggotty, Ham (especially when talking of his love for Emily), Mr. Micawber (while not how I imagined him, was still excellently done), Mrs. Micawber, Miss Trotwood, Uriah Heep (definatly portraying sinister), and Rosa Darttle.
I would recomend this movie to a few select groups. If you are curious and have read the book, then I would say, try to rent or borrow this before purchasing. Who knows you might like it. Or if you are a collector of great literary books brought to life, and finally, if you have never read the book, then try watching this and see if you want to read it then.
I would not recomend letting children view this until you yourself have screened it and decided its ok, because there are some scenes that could be very disturbing to youngters, and the first half of the movie has a dark feel about it as well.
My only hope is that someday soon, someone will put up the money for a proper mini-series to be done. Something in the range of six to ten hours would be nice. And it can be done. Just look at Pride & Prejudice, coming in at five hours long, with the book being a little over 300 pages, while Copperfield rests at a nice long 850 pages.
And so I wait....
Rating: - David Copperfield
I really loved the first half of this movie. It has a very young Daniel Radcliffe playing the part of David Copperfield. He does a Superb job. Be sure you have alot of tissues for the first half. Also Maggie Smith as his aunt does a superb job. " No donkeys, No donkeys". The lady who played Madam Hooch from the first Harry Potter movie was also in it. She played the wicked stepdad's sister. Some parts in the movie made me cry and some made me laugh. All in all this is a great movie. Don't listen to the person with the bad review on Danny and this film. It was a great film. Danny's acting in this film made you want to just hug the stuffing out of him.
Rating: - The real star is not Daniel!
Though he does a great job, the real star is Maggie Smith who plays his great-aunt! She doesn't get enough credit for her small role but the scene where she meets with David's stepfather and step-aunt is enough for me to buy this dvd it. Absolutely an incredible performance!
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