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MISS POTTER Send This Review to a Friend
Renée Zellweger has another showy part as, according to this version, the fiercely independent and enormously successful Beatrix Potter, author of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and other children’s favorites that have endured since her first published work in Britain in 1901. The screenplay by Richard Maltby, Jr., presents Potter as a determined charmer who is immersed in her creative world despite a disparaging mother and a woman who is a model of feminism in an age in which women were looked upon as intellectually irrelevant.
Director Chris Noonan tells the story with restraint, allowing Zellweger’s screen prowess to do the captivating. There are also such neat touches as Potter’s characters coming to life in animation on the printed page, quite fitting given that the author likes to converse with them in her fertile imagination. She persists in seeking publication and even the publishers who finally agree don’t expect very much. To everyone’s surprise, success comes quickly once the public is acquainted with Potter’s delightful work.
A love story that is both appealing and sad develops between Potter and the awed Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor), who is assigned to shepherd her book through the editing and printing process. Zellweger comes to know tragedy, but commercially she amasses property and financial independence as well as fame and respect.
The film is also interesting in its detail about the printing process at the time, and audiences can appreciate her joy in seeing the end result, as well as her meticulousness in insisting on the quality she seeks.
Emily Watson has a colorful role as Warne’s sister Millie, who becomes Potter’s close chum. The film is a bit too coy and sugary, yet Zellweger is endearing in the title role and makes Potter an interesting creature ahead of her time and someone whose passion about her work is matched by the success that passion engenders. A Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Weinstein Company release.
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