In another scene, Patel's Copperfield wallops his bowl-haircut nemesis Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw) triumphantly. He pulled it off without injuring his fellow actor, or himself.

Hugh Laurie, left, and Dev Patel in “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” (Dean Rogers/Twentieth Century Fox) <b>The Personal History of David Copperfield</b> (PG-13) Dickens’s ...

For those whose memories of reading Dickens in high school are a bit spotty, a refresher: “David Copperfield” — serialized in 1849 and 1850, ... and Ben Whishaw as Uriah Heep. ...

He initially befriends David Copperfield as his landlord, before being sent to debtors’ prison. Later employed as a clerk for the scheming Uriah Heep, he helps Copperfield bring about Heep’s ...