Synopsis
David Copperfield (1999) is a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' semi-autobiographical novel — watch online on iFILM. Directed by Simon Curtis, with Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Ian McKellen, Imelda Staunton, Zoë Wanamaker and Tom Wilkinson in the cast.
David arrives in the world as a half-orphan, his father already six months dead. His mother's warmth is cut short by the arrival of stepfather Murdstone, who treats harshness as a form of moral instruction. From there: child labour, London law offices, the sharp geometry of Victorian class. A young Daniel Radcliffe plays the boy; Ciarán McMenamin takes the adult years.
Simon Curtis keeps the adaptation fleet and trusts the cast to carry the novel's weight: Maggie Smith as the formidable Aunt Betsey, Ian McKellen slithering through every Uriah Heep scene, Bob Hoskins as the eternally broke but irrepressible Micawber. It's a Dickens production that doesn't soften the anger in the source, and that makes it one of the better ones. Stream David Copperfield online on iFILM.
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