|
|
 |
| |
You will go potty for Renee’s Miss Potter
MISS POTTER
Directed by Chris Noonan
Certificate 12A
THE stories of Beatrix Potter have played a part in the lives of millions of children. They are an institution.
This story of the lady behind the books is as gentle and soft as you would expect.
Director Chris Noonan was responsible for the marvellous Babe, a story of a pig that thinks it’s a sheep dog, so perhaps this understanding of a good children’s story is the key to why he has made this bio-pic about the author behind such childhood favourites as Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher and Mrs Tiggywinkle.
Renee Zellweger is engaging as the lady who wrote the books, while the settings – the film was of course shot on location in the Lake District – give this film a wonderful backdrop. But as well as being the story of how these marvellous tales were created, it is also a love story.
After being rejected time and again, a family firm finally take her on, and hand the management of her books to the youngest of three brothers who is the most inexperienced and is making his way in the world of Victorian books.
Her publisher Norman (Ewan McGregor) falls for this gentle and imaginative creature, and Zellweger, in her portrayal of Potter, almost makes her like a character from one of her beautiful stories.
Potter had holidayed in the Lakes as a young girl and was encouraged by her parents to take an interest in the countryside she was surrounded by.
She was a skilled draughtsman, her careful watercolours of Cumbria and the animals she observed provided the basis of her books later on in her life.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a blockbuster but unknown to the spinster-like author, whose harsh mother believes she will never marry, love, as well as literary success, is also in the air.
When her books start selling, Beatrix is faced with the dilemma of what to do with her wealth – and the answer is to spend it preserving the place which inspired her in the first place.
She vows to protect the most dramatic corner of England and invests her cash in buying land so she can keep it just as it was in her childhood. It is this property that eventually found it’s way into the hands of the National Trust after her death.
Miss Potter is well acted. The story is straightforward enough and this makes for a pleasant couple of hours. Don’t expect any plot twists – in fact, the story of Jeremy Fisher’s brush with a pike is at times more exciting. |
 |
| |
|
|
|
