The love affair that Renée Zellweger has established with her fans will continue with this sweet story about children’s’ book author Beatrix Potter, best known for the classic “Peter Rabbit.”
Apparently based on the true story of the life and loves of Miss Potter, her transformation from over-protected upper class marriage fodder to pre-suffrage eco-activist is faithfully documented in Richard Maltby’s screenplay and Zellweger’s workman-like performance. She brings to the table the same bright eyed hopefulness and bone-deep stubbornness to this role as she brought to her previous ‘Nurse Betty’ and ‘Chicago’ hits.
When director Chris Noonan adds the animal magnetism of his ‘Babe,’ the result is a sweet, if predictable, success.
The costumes and sets of this period piece are turned out in an exquisite detail that has not been matched previously by any but a precious few films. These faithfully reproduced artifacts of 1900 England, by themselves, are worth the price of admission.
The picture starts with mom (Barbara Flynn) giving the young Beatrix a piece of her mind for wasting all her time on her senseless doodles instead of practicing how to move upward in society. The unfortunate Ms. Flynn is saddled throughout the film with the role of the grasping reactionary society-mom who has no desire for her daughter beyond marriage to a family at least a little higher up on the social scale.
Things get a little psychedelic now and then when Beatrix’ drafted animals come to life on the pages and start to move around, but that’s about as weird as it gets. Fine viewing for the entire family throughout.
Beatrix spends all of her time either turning down potential suitors who seem to have been drawn from the local loony bin, writing and drawing her books or being turned down by publishers. On all occasions she is accompanied by her chaperone, Miss Wiggin, one of the many crystalline character actors that form the near-perfect back-drop for this film.
The setting is crucial to the story, since England prior to WWI existing in a brief period of calm between the storms. Potter’s family was part of the growing upper-middle class and had accumulated enough wealth to at least imitate actual royalty, donning their finery in salons and dinner parties and concentrating on living the life of the elite.
The fantasy of her social setting might well have contributed to her gift for fantasy in the stories she told. Her animal characters appropriated pretend identities, much like the real people around her. Diane Arbus chose circus freaks, Beatrix Potter drew her own.
To keep things moving, the story starts with her acceptance by a publishing house and the assignment of cute and keen Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor---‘Star Wars,’ ‘Trainspotting,’ ‘Moulin Rouge’!) as her publisher. Like all publishers he says the right things and her book is a smash. Mom totally disapproves, of course, but Beatrix does as she pleases, an acting assignment that fits Zellweger’s hand like a glove.
Soon after Beatrix’ assignment with Norman, Norman’s sister Millie (Emily Watson---‘Hillary and Jackie’ and ‘Breaking the Waves’) comes on to the scene and the two thoroughly modern women become chums in their plotting to preserve their freedom and make their mark on pre-war England.
As Beatrix grows with the success of her books, the camera shifts from inner city salons dripping with pearls and crystals to the fair farmlands of Isle of the Man and the Lake District of England.
At this point the photography and pacing settles into something more like James Herriot’s ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ as Miss Potter continues to confound the establishment in a gentle way by buying farmland before it can fall into the hands of local developers who want to build the forerunners of America’s Wal-Marts.
It is here she finds her peace at last, as the pennies of the children she enthralled for the next hundred years find their place in the homes of the creatures by which she was inspired. An excellent film for the Christmas season and one of the few that the entire family can see together, and all come away with something.
Miss Potter
Opens exclusive engagements December 29, 2006, limited release January 5, 2007 and wide release January 12, 2007. MPAA: Rated PG
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