David Copperfield

And you can hardly expect a yank to effectively portray a character so intrinsically British as Betsey Trotwood (Bridget Jones was not the norm)... Sally Field's accent was thus naff, and the acting poor, reminiscent of Hepburn as Doolittle.

But sorry I thought that Eileen Atkins was superb as ever, as Miss Murdstone, and Hugh Dancy .... not only is he stunningly beautiful but he played the part of David the elder, magnificently.

David Copperfield, the book, is a relatively large tome, and TV movies do not allow for all minute points to be covered.

I liked it anyway. For what its worth LOL

Well, no matter what anyone else thought, I thought that this adaption was great!!! The costumes were incredible and the acting was brilliant. So who cares what the other people thought of the movie. The love that David Copperfield spoke of for Dora was really believable. Also...Sally Field is in it. What else can I say. She's brilliant. Mrs. Murdsen was, in all honesty, a jerk. I wanted to strangle her. That is good acting!!!!! Hugh Dancy...come to the Americas and stay!! You are fantastic!!!!!

How do you cut and structure David COPPERFIELD? If I recall correctly, the TV version back in 1969 made it a passage through grief to maturity. This one makes it the shaking off of a curse. Murdstone is a destroyer of women, and he sends David off to a training that will inevitably make David-- as it makes his hero Steerforth-- another such destroyer. From time to time David as narrator reminds us that he is making the mistake of succumbing to expectations, but in the end he successfully rebels. It's not the original, but it's not a bad take on the story.

Micawber has a similar triumph near the end of the story, and it's a shame that he wasn't allowed to shine in that triumph without the distraction of Michael Richards' physical comedy. Up to that point the Krameresque bumbling was not unwelcome, certainly a better alternative than trying to compete directly with the legendary W.C. Fields interpretation. Micawber's accent was odd, though, and it was mixed with unadulterated Kramer interjections.

My first thought was, why another adaptation? The BBC version was pure poetry in motion. Why ruin it's memory with this garbage version? It seems that creativity and research are no longer used in the world of film making. The quest for greed; producers with no experience and/or talent, lend their ugly hand in remake after remake of stories that have been told over and over again. Come on Film World, let's be more original and do what film making is supposed to do: ART and CREATIVITY.

I wished Hugh Dancy had done the BBC's version of David Copperfield....he is the perfect David

the BBC version is the most faithful to the book however I feel they miscasted older David...Hugh Dancy is perfect

the hallmark David Copperfield is not as faithfull to the book in my opinion...Sally Field as Aunt Besty is not all too great...Dame Maggie Smith was better...if Hugh Dancy had been in the BBC version it would have been perfect