The Personal History of David Copperfield

I am a huge fan of author Charles Dickens, director Armando Iannucci, and actor Dev Patel so I have been eagerly anticipating the release of The Personal History of David Copperfield ever since I heard about it!  I saw it last night and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!  David Copperfield (Patel) begins telling his life story to an audience in a vaudeville theater.  He relates his many adventures and describes the friends and enemies who come and go in his life including his widowed mother (Morfydd Clark), his kindhearted nanny Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) and her family in Yarmouth, his cruel stepfather Mr. Murdstone (Darren Boyd) and his sister Jane (Gwendolyn Christie), his impecunious landlord Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi), his wealthy aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) and her eccentric lodger Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie), Trotwood's drunken lawyer Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong) and his daughter Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar), his snobbish fellow student James Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard), the sycophantic villain Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw), and his employer Mr. Spenlow (Matthew Cottle) and his beautiful daughter Dora (Morfydd Clark).  Through his adventures he learns many important life lessons which he writes down to become a celebrated author.  This is an incredibly whimsical and satirical version of the classic Dickens novel.  Normally I am a purist when it comes to literary adaptations but I love Iannucci's particular brand of humor (The Death of Stalin is hilarious) so I really enjoyed this.  So many things made me laugh out loud such as the many ways Mr. Micawber tries to avoid his creditors, the infestation of donkeys on Aunt Betsey's lawn, Mr. Dick's preoccupation with the thoughts of Charles I, Mr. Wickfiekd's attempts to find the sherry, the heavy cake at tea with Mrs. Heep, David's job as a proctor when he doesn't know what a proctor is, and David's proposal to Dora through the mouth of her dog.  The entire cast is fantastic and I really loved the colorblind casting!  Patel is charming in the title role but Swinton steals every scene she is in!  The bold and colorful costumes are so much fun and the production design, which blurs the line between imagination and reality, is incredibly original and theatrical.  This movie is absolutely delightful and I highly recommend it!