David Copperfield is born to his widowed mother, Clara, and begins saving noteworthy quotes from his life on scraps of paper. As a child, he visits his nanny Peggotty's family in their upturned boathouse in Yarmouth. When David returns home, he discovers Clara has married Edward Murdstone, a strict and callous factory owner. After being beaten by Murdstone and bullied by Murdstone's sister Jane, David is sent to work in Murdstone's bottling factory in London, where he lodges with the Micawber family, who are always cheerful but frequently pursued by their creditors.
As a young man, David still works at the factory, while the Micawbers are evicted by bailiffs and sent to debtors' prison. Informed of his mother's death only after her funeral, David wreaks havoc in the factory and departs for Dover to find his wealthy aunt Betsey Trotwood, his only living relative. Her lodger, the eccentric Mr. Dick, believes himself to be burdened with the late King Charles I’s thoughts and, like David, jots them down. David attaches these notes to a kite for Mr. Dick to fly, which helps clear his mind. David meets Betsey's accountant, Mr. Wickfield, and Wickfield's daughter, Agnes.
Admitted to a school for boys, David is befriended by his classmate, James Steerforth, who calls him Daisy and believes him to be a gentleman. Later, a butcher's lad mocks the two friends and David challenges him to a fight - David gets knocked out. Agnes tends to his wounds but David disappoints her by saying he thinks of her as a sister. Mr. Micawber briefly joins the school as a teacher, but is exposed by Steerforth as a former convict and fired. Mr. Wickfield's clerk Uriah Heep, who has previously been mocked by the boys, tries to blackmail David with knowledge of his past. At a farewell party at school, David meets Steerforth's mother, ignores his future employer, and falls in love with a somewhat ditsy girl named Dora Spenlow. He is hired as a trainee lawyer with Dora's father's firm in London, where he lives the life of a "young gentleman" and courts Dora.
Betsey arrives in London with Mr. Dick, having lost her fortune and home, and David is forced to decamp with them to a slum dwelling offered by Uriah, who has been keeping Mr. Wickfield drunk and persuaded him to make him a partner. Uriah is also courting Agnes. David visits Pegotty's family in their boat-house with Steerforth, who runs away with Pegotty's adopted daughter Emily, leaving her longtime fiancé Ham. Mr. Micawber now lives on the streets with his family and has pawned his beloved concertina, which he asks Mr. Dick to buy back. Instead, Mr. Dick steals it for him, and David invites the Micawbers to move in with him, Betsey, and Mr. Dick.
David begins to write the story of his life as a book, using the fragments he has saved since childhood. Agnes asks David, Micawber, Betsey, and Mr. Dick for a letter written by Mr. Wickfield as evidence of Uriah’s misdeeds. They confront Uriah, who has been embezzling funds — including Betsey’s missing fortune — by forging Mr. Wickfield's signature, presenting the letter as proof. David punches Uriah after the villainous clerk strikes Betsey, and dismisses him. Recognising that she no longer fits in David's "story", Dora calls off their engagement, asking him to write her out of his book.
Emily is spotted in London and confronted by Steerforth’s mother, but rescued by David and Pegotty’s family. She reveals that Steerforth abandoned her in France, but he will return the following day to Yarmouth. When a storm wrecks Steerforth’s boat off the Yarmouth beach, Ham swims out on a line, but Steerforth refuses to be rescued and is drowned. Mourning his feckless friend’s death, David realises he is in love with Agnes, who reciprocates. He publishes his book to great success, performing public readings of his story. His new career as a writer allows him to buy back Betsey’s home for her and Mr. Dick and continue to support the Micawbers, and he and Agnes marry and have a daughter.
Although it received critical acclaim, The Personal History of David Copperfield underperformed at the box office, as its North American release came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many cinemas were restricted from opening.[29]
In the United Kingdom, it took $2m in its first week and a total gross of around $8 million by the start of March, when the pandemic began to affect cinemas. In the United States, it debuted $520,000 from 1,360 cinemas in August; playing in 1,550 cinemas the following weekend it fell 24% to $361,000. It went in to gross $1.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $12.5 million in the rest of the world, for a worldwide total of $14.4 million[30] against a production budget of $15.6 million.
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 248 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "The Personal History of David Copperfield puts a fresh, funny, and utterly charming spin on Dickens' classic, proving some stories truly are timeless."[31] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[32]PostTrak reported that 74% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 50% saying they would recommend it.[33]
Writing for The Observer, Mark Kermode awarded the film a full five stars and stated: "It really is a wonderfully entertaining film, managing to both respect and reinvent the novel from which it takes its lead."[34]
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