With ‘David Copperfield,’ a director and star find the humor and modern voice of Charles Dickens (Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures) ... as Micawber, and Dev Patel as David Copperfield.

In the main he makes Micawber as real as David. The same may be said for Edna May Oliver, ... David Copperfield Charles Dickens did not write with the idea of being dramatized.

This “David Copperfield” can feel patchy and truncated in places, ... as the always-optimistic Mr. Micawber and a memorably loathsome Ben Whishaw as the scheming Uriah Heep.

Exuberant fun and packed with excellent, plainly delighted actors, “The Personal History of David Copperfield” gallops through Charles Dickens’ tale with just enough fidelity to the source ...

This is the most diverse 'David Copperfield' ever. There have been screen and TV mini-series versions of Dickens' 1850 novel. But none have been diverse like this, starting with the lead casting ...

Micawber is a key character in the novel. He initially befriends David Copperfield as his landlord, before being sent to debtors’ prison. Later employed as a clerk for the scheming Uriah Heep ...

Satirist, director and the creator of Veep, Armando Iannucci does Charles Dickens in The Personal History Of David Copperfield. And NPR's critic says there's a lot that's unexpected in the movie.

This “David Copperfield” is not, then, quite the film of the book. If you love the original, you may groan at times. But enjoy it for what it is: a loose, comic retelling of a great novel.

That is a compelling claim, and “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” despite its shortcomings, is an enterprise full of hope. Like Mr. Micawber, it thrives on the ridiculous belief ...

The Charles Dickens novel, published serially beginning in 1849, was known as “The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone ...