Charles Dickens has never been one of my favorite authors. While I've always admired him as a social reformer, worthy of Jonathan Swift before him and Upton Sinclair after, his books have left me cold. Dickens, you see, was paid by the word, so he used as many of them as possible in his epic tales of ordinary people. I've heard rumor (but never attempted to find out) that his Bleak House goes on for something like a hundred and sixty pages describing the setting before a single character appears. All right, so prose was the only mass media of the nineteenth century. I still think Dickens' writing is overblown, plodding, meandering and dull.

Fortunately, that's everything that TNT's new two-part film of David Copperfield is not. Granted, because so much verbiage is compressed into so short a time, it often feels like we're watching the Cliff's Notes being performed, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The only full adaptation of any Dickens work I know of (besides A Christmas Carol) is The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, which clocks in at close to nine hours. At about a third that length, TNT's original movie David Copperfield does the job without meandering off into dramatic dead alleys. At the very least, if you've got kids and want to get them interested in literature, this wouldn't be a bad place to start. Sure, the book will bore the living daylights out of them, but you can always steer them toward Daniel DaFoe or Laurence Sterne -- two much older authors with much more modern sensibilities, oddly enough.

But, as Mr. Dickens so often did, I do digress...

This Copperfield begins with its hero, played by Hugh Dancy, wandering the grounds of a huge estate in Switzerland, remembering a table-tipping confrontation. Then he sits down to write his memoirs, and we're into the novel proper, watching as young Copperfield (Max Dolbey) suffers one misfortune after another. First, his father dies before he's born, then his mother ends up marrying the gold-digging Mr. Murdstone (Anthony Andrews). Murdstone's child-rearing technique is simple -- flog 'em and, if that fails, ship 'em off to London. In short order, Copperfield ends up in a very strange boarding school, only to be sent back home when his mother dies. Murdstone and his nasty sister, Jane (Eileen Atkins), have no use for the boy, so they ship him back to London to toil in a brewing business sweatshop they partly own. These dark days are briefly interrupted by the operatically bigger than life Mr. Micawber (Michael Richards), who stays always half a step ahead of his debtors until he falls half a step behind and lands in prison. Eventually, Copperfield grows up with no apparent psychic damage (nowadays, he'd still be in therapy) but a decided inability to actually do anything. He meets what he thinks is the woman of his dreams, only to find out that her chaperone is old step-auntie Jane, who casts a sinister shadow over things as we fade out on part one. In part two, all the bits and pieces set up begin to pay off, or at least come to a conclusion, as Copperfield stumbles headlong toward his big confrontation while re-encountering seemingly everyone he's ever met in his life.

Where this adaptation works is in the "minor" characters, who are the real story. To be sure, Dancy is very pretty as Copperfield, something to look at while he's doing nothing, but that gets old after about fifteen minutes. He's surrounded by a collection of well- and un-known actors, each of whom gives the kind of theatrical performance that this sort of piece needs. Face it, Dickens thought he was writing tragedy, but he really wrote farcical satire. For example, who could seriously believe that great-aunt Betsey would become apoplectic on learning that the newest addition to the family is a boy? There's also more than a tinge of homoeroticism in the relationship between Copperfield and his boarding school friend Steerforth, at least when they're all grown up and run into each other at the theatre. And the rise and fall and rise of Micawber's fortunes, a side plot here, would be enough to fill someone else's novel. Director Medak keeps the design in the right period while letting a modern sensibility waft over the proceedings, but the result is not anachronistic. On the contrary, it's quite illuminating and engaging; suddenly, these people in funny clothes who say an awful lot of words are understandable in our terms. Again, it makes this adaptation ideal for the kids.

The adults get some very enjoyable performances. Sally Field's great-aunt Betsey steals every scene she's in. Eileen Atkins drips evil with every move -- she's one of those pinch-faced villains that you'll absolutely despise even as you want to see more of her onscreen. Judy Cornwell exudes earth mother warmth as Miss Peggotty, the loving nanny we all wish we had as children. Anthony Andrews shows the right degree of nastiness as Murdstone. Oddly enough, he played one of the good guys, Steerforth, in a TV adaptation twenty-six years ago. Full circle, indeed.

Even Michael Richards pulls off a straight-faced performance as the flamboyant deadbeat Mr. Micawber, and although his lofty, drawn-out accent comes from no known part of the British Empire, it still works. He creates a real character instead of just sticking Kramer in bald head and beer-belly prosthesis. Of course, Richards is filling some big shoes here -- this role was inhabited by W.C. Fields at the height of his career. However, don't be mislead by the advertising -- this is not a Michael Richards vehicle. He shows up only briefly in the first part, then not enough in the second. Again, blame the source, not the adapters.

That's really my watchword for this David Copperfield. All of its weaknesses come from Mr. Dickens himself. His story adds up to a lot of nothing, a hero who is entirely reactive and never takes action -- consequently, a supremely uninteresting hero. Dickens compounds that error by laying Copperfield's boyhood tragedies on way, way too thick. Just when you think there could be no more bad news, bang, here comes something else, until it gets comical. This is mostly balanced out by judicious pacing, enjoyable performances and detailed art direction that brings it all to life. Yes, there is one fairly major plot addition -- Copperfield's aforementioned confrontation. Purists will complain, I'm sure. But it's the one detail that gives some sort of forward motion to the story, and it's a good addition, purists be damned.

You could certainly do far worse if you're looking for a British novel of the month TV movie fix, but for this David Copperfield, about the only way you can do better is to rent the 1935 version on video. Otherwise, gather the family together, make a big bucket of popcorn, and fire up the literature.

David Copperfield debuts on TNT on Dec. 10 (Part I) and Dec. 11 (Part II) at 8 p.m. and plays throughout the month. It's rated TV-PG, oddly enough. And... in fitting with my mention that it's a good film for kids, TNT has a web-based educator curriculum guide at http://www.turnerlearning.com/tntlearning.

Jon Bastian, a native and resident of Los Angeles, is a playwright and screenwriter who works in the TV trade to keep his dog rolling in kibble.

Got a problem? Email Jon at filmmonthly@hotmail.com